The Three Heroes
by CirciFox81314
Summary: -The Three Heroes of the Raposa rewrite- During a time of peace for the Raposa, their heroes are bitter of their peace and prosperity because of the fact they are forced to do most of the work. However, when their peace is disturbed by a new evil, they find they have to team up with another Raposa village in order to defeat them. But does that mean they can defeat the new evil?
1. Chapter 1: Peace and Battles

**Edit: **Upon noticing a mistake I made in later chapters about events, I realized I needed to quickly edit this chapter in order for things to make sense (I switched the occurrence of events between Next Chapter (Wii) and Next Chapter (DS).

That's all.

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A/N: The original story made it insanely difficult to write. I couldn't get inspiration, and I just couldn't finish the chapter I was working on.

Time skip to now, I'm ready to work on this story again, and now I have a better plot in mind.

So, rewrite! Let's go.

I own nothing but my original characters.

Here's the first chapter.

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Chapter 1: Peace and Battles

The Raposa Village had gone through all kinds of hell as it had been settled. Years ago, a Raposa by the name of Wilfre had been possessed by his own creations upon trying to make it so Raposa could be able to fend off by themselves without their Creator. Then he attacked the Village, covering it in shadow, and despite the Raposa had lost hope, they gained their first hero from their creator, who was created in the form of a rabbit, Penelope.

During her trials, and after her final battle with Wilfre, she had shortly been possessed by shadow goo which couldn't take her heart, but caused her to become neutral, helping both sides.

Midway during her adventures, two heroes to help her were created one named Roselyynn and the other named Thunder (though he is often referred to as different names).

After the incident with Wilfre, a while after, Mari had gotten a new deputy, Circi. And when they collected all the Items of Power, it had gone into a big mess when Circi tried to recreate Wilfre (whom she thought was dead and everyone else thought so too, though Penelope knew he wasn't), except then she created the Giant Scribble Monster and flooded the village with ink.

Under the belief the monster had killed Circi, and the fact they had to save the village, Penelope, Roselyynn and Thunder combined their powers to defeat the Giant Scribble Monster and were rewarded with a celebration (mainly because of a wedding, but they celebrated the defeat of the monster too).

Circi reappeared and revealed she wasn't dead and managed to barely escape, though in order to keep Mari's trust, she had to make an oath that she would never betray her again and came back to her position as deputy as a result.

However, after that, Penelope had mysteriously vanished, leaving Roselyynn and Thunder to take on the final challenge where Wilfre tried to take all the color out of the world in a desperate attempt to save it from its destruction, and though their world was thought to be destroyed after Roselyynn and Thunder's final battle with Wilfre, it returned.

From all those adventures and trials, now the Raposa Village and the heroes had a period of peace. However, that wasn't the case with the heroes.

The Raposa villagers in their time of peace and prosperity were very lazy. In fact, they made the heroes do tasks they probably could've done themselves all the time- giving Penelope a lot of the credit for it, even when she was aware of the fair share they all did and greatly bothering Roselyynn.

Thunder got greatly irritated of all the work, and being constantly bossed around by the Raposa (as did the other two), and he wondered of his placement as to why he was still there during their time of peace and prosperity.

And Penelope found it very stressful to be under the influence of assisting both Wilfre and the Raposa, and hated having to carrying out all of this work.

The current relationship allowed discord to develop between the heroes and the Raposa, though not shown, and the heroes began to hope something bad would happen to the ones they were to protect as sorts of revenge for all they had done.

And then there was the second village.

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The Renard Village was the Raposa Village's counterpart. Each village had an important book which connected to the Creator. The Raposa Village had the Book of Life, while the Renard Village had the Book of Truth.

The Renard Raposian people, unlike their counterpart had been in constant peace, mainly because of their recluse and because of their knowledge of how to defend themselves.

They were a scholarly group of Raposa, who put their foundation into trust and belief of their Creator, but also wisdom, knowledge of the past and hard work. They were lead by their current Mayor, Maelynn.

For the Renard Raposa, there were few cases of not knowing what to do in a crisis, as long as they were able to solve a problem. They also knew of their counterparts' trials and adventures, as well as their heroes.

Now, they didn't necessarily envy the Raposa villagers for their heroes. In fact, they didn't necessarily feel they needed heroes until a specific event fell upon them.

As the Raposa villagers had Wilfre as their antagonist, the Renard Raposa people had their antagonist, whom they knew as White Tuxedo. In fact, White Tuxedo hadn't done anything to affect them in the past, until he came up with a plan and aimed it at a specific part of the village, the Renard Raposa's Creation Hall.

For both villages, as it is known, the Creation Hall is practically their Church, but not really. The reason it was considered to be a church was because of how it was one of the only ways to be able to connect with the Creator.

The second way to connect with the Creator was through the Book of Life or the Book of Truth. And considering both Creation Halls held their respective books, if the Creation Hall was damage and/or blocked off, it would be devastating to the connection between the Raposa and their Creator.

White Tuxedo was well aware of this, as he had previously lived in the Renard Village before building a manor away from town, where he currently held his residence. In the time he was away, he had devised that plan and made an alliance with a neighboring tribe, the Gato people.

The Gato were a race of cat people, who too believed in the creator. However, unlike the Raposa, they were a warrior tribe, and built themselves off of knowledge of war and battle, survival and tradition as well as the belief of the Creator. White Tuxedo had allied himself with them, and one of their strongest female warriors (the girls were the ones who usually led the village), who went by the name, Black Cat.

So, White Tuxedo attacked the Renard's creation hall and damaged it, devastating them, and he went for the Raposa Village next, but he wasn't after their Creation Hall.

And considering the poor connection between the two villages, the Raposa villagers were unaware of what was coming for them.

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During the present day, one errand after another, Roselyynn was fed up and exhausted. "Work, work, work. All they expect of us is work." She mumbled to herself as she and the others went to the well to check on the children upon Mari's request.

Penelope and Thunder looked at her, with Penelope's rabbit ears twitching a bit. "What, Roselyynn?" Thunder asked her, looking equally exhausted.

"Those damned Raposa, that's who!" She nearly shouted but Penelope quieted her down.

"I can agree with you, and I wish they'd actually do something for once, but what else can we do?" The rabbit asked Roselyynn.

Upon getting to the well, they found no children there, as the children were likely playing elsewhere, like at the beach or something. "What we can do is not work. All those Raposa are doing is taking advantage of the fact that we're supposed to protect them, and now they're using us to do work for them."

Thunder agreed, but disagreed. "Yes, but if we don't help, Mari will freak out at us."

"She's as equally responsible for this as the others. I think the only thing Mari does is paperwork."

"Circi does the paperwork." Penelope indicated, recalling some of her experiences from helping at the Town Hall.

"Then Mari only solves problems amongst the villagers."

"No, we have to do that too." Thunder reminded Roselyynn, who blinked.

"…Then what does Mari do?" The other two remained silent, giving her bored expressions.

It hit Roselyynn. "…Don't tell me. She's always running off and playing around with Jowee at their Secret Beach, isn't she?"

They nodded. "…I sometimes wish Wilfre didn't murder Mari's Father. Maybe then the Village wouldn't be in this state. But noooooo. Mari's Father is a ghost now! He can do nothing." Roselyynn complained.

And now Isaac and Chef Cookie were fighting again.

"For the love of…" Penelope grumbled.

"Let's go handle the problem." And then the three went over to attempt to break up yet another one of their quarrels.

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"Maelynn!" A Raposa with dark brown fur with a clock on his scarf, wearing mostly blue called through the Town Hall. No reply. He checked her office. "Maelynn?" Still no reply.

He checked a few more rooms before heading to the last room and he knocked on the door upon finding it was locked. "Maelynn! Are you there?"

The door opened revealing a blonde-haired Raposa adorned in a purple gown, star shaped earrings and a green necktie.

"Yes Rikki?" She asked him, sounding bitter, but not at him.

"The villagers have been losing hope. As the Mayor, you need to do something…"

"I know, but I can't." Rikki was taken aback. "Though our beliefs are key to society, without access to the Creation Hall, we cannot get to the Book of Truth. Though I doubt the Creator ever cared about us, despite all she's given us."

Rikki couldn't let Maelynn lose hope like her people, but it wasn't working. "Maelynn, she does care. But when we need things, we're too independent to ask her."

"No. She does things for us without asking. Regardless, I know she always preferred the other village over us. They're so weak they need three heroes to defend them, and us, we get none." Rikki continued to disagree with Maelynn, much to her sadness.

"I know you believe not, Rikki, but until then, you'll see I'm right."

"We need to warn the other Village, Maelynn. You know he's after them next."

Before closing the door, Maelynn stated, "They have three heroes. They should be able to defend themselves without having to help them. They may have the Creator and her heroes, but we have our knowledge and wisdom."

And with that, Maelynn didn't reply to any of Rikki's words.

Though now wasn't the time to lose hope.

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A/N: I decided to kind of structure this first chapter like "A Tale of Two Cities", though not really.

And I probably bored you all with the history lesson, but I assure you, it will be rare when something like that happens again. It was mainly to give background and explain both situations unlike the original.

So, please review if you'd like, please don't flame and I would appreciate constructive criticism.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


	2. Chapter 2: Peace to Insanity

A/N: Welcome back.

I own nothing like usual except for my OCs.

Here is the second chapter.

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Chapter 2: Peace to Insanity

The Raposa Village, despite the tragedy that fell its counterpart retained its prosperity, laziness and happiness, as mentioned before. And as said, the prosperity meant somewhat brutal torture for the heroes.

At some point during their work (At the moment, they were helping Isaac), the anger finally got to Roselyynn and she just stopped, dropping everything she was holding when nobody but Thunder and Penelope were around. "I'm done."

Thunder and Penelope looked at each other. "With what? Isaac is going to be mad if we aren't…" Roselyynn harshly retaliated. "I don't care about him. Nor do I care about any of the other Raposa anymore!" Penelope and Thunder gasped (Penelope seemed to be taking it with total sarcasm though, not that it was obvious, really).

"It doesn't matter if we're those manipulative little foxes so called "heroes". And Thunder, please quit looking at me with astonishment like that, you know it's the truth." The blonde frowned before laughing nervously and smiling somewhat sheepishly, though he said absolutely nothing with the guilt on his face.

"But won't Mari be…" Penelope began, trying to point out the problems with her statement.

"Mari is too busy with Jowee to care. We're taking a permanent vacation and those Raposa in that time can learn what it means to actually do their own damned work!" Penelope and Thunder looked at each other, back at Roselyynn and then back at each other again. Its not that they didn't have any objections or anything, but they were afraid of something happening where the Raposa really needed them.

"Roselyynn, if we leave, they'll be defenseless. They need us to protect them." Thunder explained to her.

And of course, she had a comeback. "Look. Watersong, Galactic Jungle AND Lavasteam have all managed just fine without heroes, and they only needed us when the color was drained out. Heck, they're pretty much able to defend themselves? And us? Heck no." She took a deep breath before continuing to point out the truth in the matter.

"The point is, the villagers here are way too dependent on the Creator and us. Dependent to the point where they're too lazy to do anything themselves. Right, Creator?"

If Roselyynn was going to drag the Creator into this madness, then there really was a problem. Normally, she didn't even go to the point of doing that. But, the Creator could say nothing.

"See? Even the Creator knows there's a problem!"

"…Roselyynn, I'm getting a bad feeling about what'll happen if we leave the Raposa here. I'm getting this feeling that if we leave…" Penelope tried to explain to Roselyynn, but she didn't listen. Her heart was set on leaving now, and she only encouraged the other two to do the same. It got to the point where they compromised, and decided to leave, though Penelope really didn't want to.

A while after abandoning what Isaac told them to deliver to him (They were actually pretty close to his shop at the time), he noticed how the three heroes were taking unusually long. So, when he checked outside, upon walking around a bit, he noticed the items the three were supposed to deliver, abandoned on the ground from what appeared to be quite a while ago. Upon retrieving the things and going back in his shop to set them in the storeroom, afterwards, in his infuriation and annoyance, he set out to find Mari to inform her of what happened.

XxXxX

Upon their exit of the Raposa Village, the three heroes set through the forest in hopes of going elsewhere. However, from about a quarter of the way through, Penelope fell over from exhaustion. "Ugh… can we please just stop and take a break? My small, stubby legs are tired." She asked the other two.

Roselyynn stopped and put her hands on her hips, swiftly turned around and staring down at the rabbit, lilac eyes meeting small brown ones. All Thunder hopes was that he could tune this out, because he knew that there was going to be a girl fight soon, and he wasn't going to put up with any of this. "Well, sorry for being drawn with short, stubby legs. We can't stop moving yet."

Penelope didn't seem to approve, and as Roselyynn turned around, Penelope took her off guard with her ear acting almost like a tentacle, stretching out like a spread of darkness before in wrapped around one of the taller heroine's legs and pulled her down.

"Um, no, we're taking a break. Who's the leader here, pinky?" Thunder watched them begin to fight before staring at an imaginary watch, but suddenly stopped and froze upon hearing a rustle in the trees. He looked up and stared in the direction he heard it. He saw a dark figure rush through, and another. It couldn't have been Wilfre's work- Wilfre hadn't appeared or stirred up trouble for a while now. In fact, he was likely dead from his knowledge.

"Did you guys see that? Or hear that just now?" He asked the two. The blonde saw them preparing to kill each other with their weapons. So, he raised his sword up to the sky, keeping a bored look on his face, before pulling back down and rain began to fall from the sky, and quickly after, a lightning bolt struck the two of them and took off a health piece for both of them, much to their anger. "THUNDER! WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" Roselyynn shouted at him.

He said nothing as he pointed over to the trees, as the wind caused the branches and leaves to rustle. "Thunder, those are just trees. What's so special about them?"

"I saw two dark shadow-like figures heading towards the village. I think something bad is about to happen, and we need to go back." Roselyynn assumed it was just a trick of his so they'd go back to the village. And Penelope, as she didn't see the shadows either, agreed. She thought it looked like that because of the rain Thunder started.

"That's ridiculous, Thunder. Why would we need to go back because of that? It was probably a squirrel or something. Unless there was an explosion of something, then we'd go back."

As if on cue, lightning crashed and rippled, and they heard the sound of a somewhat attack as the rain pelted down on them, the wind howling for them to go back. "…Touché. We need to go back, now!"

The heroes immediately began to make their way back to the village in a sudden hurry.

Meanwhile, Mari found herself in the brief chaos she had heard outside before leaving the Town Hall. Before her, she saw rampant destruction and chaos from a cat-like species suddenly terrorizing the Raposa there.

However, she was unaware of the heroes' departure, despite Isaac told her that they seemingly neglected their duties. She called out for the heroes, only to hear no reply, much to her confusion as they'd immediately be there if something like this had happened. She heard a chuckle behind her, and she turned around to see no one.

"My. The one time you needed your heroes was the time they abandoned you." A somewhat calm voice told Mari. She turned around again to meet a figure whom at first she thought was a ghost in the rain. However, it came to her that the figure was a Raposa, but that Raposa seemed unfamiliar.

"Who are you? And what do you mean?" Mari demanded, hoping to herself that this mysterious Raposa, adorned in white, was only attempting to deceive her.

"Me? Does my name matter? My name is simply a title that one knows me by." He stated before slightly adjusting his top hat and then his bowtie. "As to your other question… Isn't it obvious? Nothing has been done about the madness that now ails you."

Mari seemed taken aback, but then angered. "What do you know? Besides, you haven't answered my question yet!" She shouted at the odd Raposa. He chuckled at her yet again.

"For such a delicate flower, you're awfully demanding. However, my name is still of no importance." However, now the village was unusually quiet, and Mari saw nobody else now, except for her and this Raposa, who was now smirking.

"What's going on? First, everyone is here with those odd cat creatures and now… this…this is madness!" White Tuxedo chuckled, and suddenly, it began to darken around Mari.

"…Is it madness, or is it insanity?" It all went black for Mari as she suddenly fell.

Finally, when the heroes arrived later, the rain still pouring and the sky grey, it appeared to be absolutely empty except for a single Raposa with snow white fur, in a white and silvery tuxedo, with an overly large white top hat with a walking stick. Half of his face was darkened by his top hat, making the only side of his face visible to be the side where he was wearing a monocle.

Penelope was getting this slight feeling that this single Raposa was likely the reason everyone was gone. She knew him to be unfamiliar, and yet, he seemed to be awaiting their arrival. This particular Raposa noticed their presence and chuckled.

"Ah, the heroes of whom the villagers here honor, yet you arrived too late to save them." He began, twirling his walking stick before firmly placing it on the ground again.

Roselyynn seemed to be in disbelief. "Too…late? We can't be… we just can't…"

The Raposa got a bit closer. "It's a shame, really. I was expecting more of a challenge as I expected to see you here. And yet… you come now."

Thunder narrowed his eyes. Lightning cracked and boomed. "Okay. Then who are you, and where are the villagers?"

Another chuckle. "I find it amusing how your little Mayor asked me a similar question. Though my name isn't important, I'll just tell you the obvious. I'm the villain." So, this Raposa in this white tux was the villain. A classy villain, wasn't he?

"So, White Tuxedo guy. Considering you're the villain you won't tell us where the villagers are, right?" He nodded.

"Good. You have a sharp eye and ear, original hero. Now, if you excuse me, I'll be taking my leave." Roselyynn seemed alarmed. "B-but wait, you can't just…"

And with a snap, he vanished. The rain still continued, much to Roselyynn and Penelope's annoyance, but a question arose. "Creator… where do we go now?"

"_The other village to the east of the village to the forest, past the hills of where it ends._" She said to them. They didn't understand at first.

"What?"

"_The second village you likely were never told about. This village's counterpart. It's to the east. I'll guide you there._"

Despite they still didn't quite understand where the Creator was getting at; she began to draw an arrow in the direction to the east, which they began to follow in hopes of getting on track with her words.

Because now, the village needed them more than ever.

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A/N: Whoop! I finally finished this chapter. It didn't take as long as I thought it would take to finish it, which I find fortunate as I likely would've flipped out if it did so.

Regardless, now the heroes need to follow the Creator to this "other village". Though you probably have an idea of what this "other village" the Creator was talking about is.

Please review if you'd like, I'd prefer if you didn't flame and please tell me how I can improve as an author.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


	3. Chapter 3: Counterpart Village

Now that the heroes need to head to the east, where are they going exactly? We'll see in this chapter.

Like usual, I own nothing but my OCs.

Here's chapter 3!

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 3: Counterpart Village

With the Creator guiding Roselyynn, Thunder and Penelope, they were unaware of the shadow following them as they continued to head east in the direction she guided them. They had been traveling for hours and hours now, though Roselyynn, being fairly impatient about this journey, was beginning to wonder why it was taking so long just to get to a location.

"Creator, just how far is this place from our village?" As she continued to guide them, the Creator remained speechless, only to leave Roselyynn to desire answers. Not that she was going to get any questions answered anyway, but she could at least try to. Yet when Roselyynn repeated her question, she found that she really wasn't going to get any answers.

Fortunately, there weren't many enemies the heroes had to deal with in the forest. At some point, they reached the other end of the forest, after hours and hours of walking. They reached a cliff which overlooked an area where a river stream flowed, and they saw a bridge going across. Following it by the view, they saw another village, which looked opposite in layout to the village they knew, but it also looked oddly more beautiful.

This village was close to a shoreline, like their own village, and they could also see a port. The Creator remained speechless, though somewhat sad (despite not being able to see her, it was interesting how it was noticeable at all) when they saw this village oddly enough, but the heroes moved on upon her request.

Once they got closer and closer to this village, they were getting a better view of the architecture and such. One thing noticeable is how their village had their architecture more focused around a French architectural theme, which was evident in the buildings and other décor in it. The village's personal theme made it seem somewhat similar to the other three villages they knew of with a theme, and it was quite the sight to behold.

However, Thunder wanted to check what the interior of the town looked like in case something had happened, to maybe explain why White Tuxedo attacked their village. Peeking in, it was noticeable that the Raposa of the town were working on repairs of various buildings… Though there was also a feeling of disconnection from this village.

"_The Creation Hall. You need to find their creation hall and repair the connection point._" The three heroes looked up at maybe where the Creator was, confused as to why she had suddenly made this request. She hadn't mentioned it to them up until now.

"What? What connection point?"

"_This village, like the village you know, had been blessed by me, and like your own village, I was close to the citizens here… until White Tuxedo damaged the creation hall- my connection point between the Raposa and me. You need to find Mayor Maelynn and request her permission to repair the hall._" The creator's projection of herself suddenly vanished, likely because of a fizzled connection from the Creation Hall. This left Penelope, Roselyynn and Thunder to fend for themselves.

Considering the scene seemed safe, the heroes proceeded to walk into the village, trying to find the Creation Hall, but also the Town Hall. Penelope saw how the Raposa there suddenly were in awe, and the hope they thought they lost returned to their eyes. She didn't understand why they looked hopeless until now.

As they knew, the Mayor of the Village, for the most part, had the closest connection with the Creator, and this connection allowed them to be able to lead the village, with hope and guidance. Why it seemed lost from this village in particular was unknown, but they'd soon find out, as while they were walking, Roselyynn noticed the Town Hall.

The reversed layout either made the town seem simpler or more confusing depending on whom you asked, but before they could pass it, Roselyynn stopped them upon seeing it. Upon stopping, a door opened to reveal a female Raposa with blonde hair, holding a checklist.

At first, they didn't know if she was the Mayor or not until a Raposa whom they found and odd resemblance to Jowee approached her. He was the one who allowed them figure this girl was the Mayor. While the Mayor was speaking with this Raposa, the heroes approached her, and the Raposa who looked similar to Jowee poked her.

Most of the villagers seemed hopeful when they saw the heroes. However, it wasn't the same case with the Mayor here. Upon seeing them, they saw how she seemed… disgusted by their presence, but also angry.

"Hmph. The Creation Heroes from the other village." She began, sounding fairly rude. "If you didn't know, it's a little late to save us."

The three had varied reactions of her attitude, but Roselyynn took it the worst, seemingly taken aback, but also frustrated. Penelope decided to look away from the Mayor, pretending she hadn't heard that comment, leaving Thunder to be their spokesperson.

"The Creator requested us to fix the Creation Hall. She said it might help…" The Raposa mayor, Maelynn, proceeded to cut Thunder off.

"Creation Hall? Oh, why does it matter? She always preferred the other village anyway." Maelynn huffed. "If you really care about our village that much, go fix the Creation Hall. I don't care what happens to it now anyway."

She didn't even say goodbye as she walked off to check progress on the repairs of town. The Raposa who had just been speaking with Maelynn sighed.

"Sorry about her. Ever since White Tuxedo attacked and damaged our Creation Hall, Maelynn hasn't been able to get to the Creator. Because of it, she's been assuming that the Creator's abandoned us and is too focused on the other village to the west to care." He explained to the heroes.

Penelope didn't seem as surprised as the other two when it came to this matter. If anything, she seemed to be expecting this, though she was curious as to why Maelynn thought that. "The Creator hasn't abandoned you. She sent us to help you."

"I can see that. Though I don't know why Maelynn assumed why she abandoned us for the western village though…" The heroes proceeded to explain how their village tended to be overly dependent on the Creator, and that they were initially going to leave because of misuse of their roles and dependence. However, when they left their village defenseless in those moments, White Tuxedo attacked and kidnapped the whole village, similarly to Wilfre.

"Wilfre? Isn't he that one Raposa who tried to become a Creator to show the Raposa didn't need to be so dependent? We're fairly independent, but we let the Creator create and draw to help us, though most of this village is what we created without her help." He explained. That whole idea of being a village of independence, but also a village that had loyalty to the Creator seemed unreal.

These Raposa had the Creator help them, but they mostly built their village by themselves. No wonder the village had such a special feel to it! Though… it did too feel sad, especially in its current state.

However, now wasn't the time to worry about that? "Actually, why does the Mayor hate our village, sir?" Thunder asked, though the Raposa they currently spoke to corrected him.

"Call me Rikki," He told Thunder before moving onto the next point of importance. "Anyway, Maelynn noticed how the Creator always seemed to be aiding the other village. She didn't mind it at first, but when White Tuxedo attacked and the Creator didn't come to aid us, she felt that the creator had truly abandoned us for them."

Penelope proceeded to explain how the Creator never mentioned the other village to them, and they were unaware of all the pain and sorrow they were dealing with. Another point she brought up was that there was a chance that the Creator probably didn't mention the other village in their own village's time of sorrow when it was covered by darkness as she likely didn't want it to be a target.

"Considering how independent your village tends to be, I'm guessing that she overlooked your situation and wasn't able to come to your aid in time until it was too late when the connection was broken. Though we need Maelynn's permission to fix the hall."

Rikki blinked at them before motioning the three to follow him. The heroes didn't quite understand, but they soon found out that he was leading them to the Creation Hall the whole time when he stopped. Before them, they saw a beautiful Creation Hall, with bright and beautiful colors that fit with the normal architectural theme of the village. But now, those colors seemed dulled, almost like this place had been abandoned, and the hall also appeared to be the most damaged building in the village. But also showed that nothing had been done to fix it.

Rikki stood in front of the door, which was the least damaged part of the Creation Hall. "This is the Renard Village Creation Hall. I don't know how you're going to fix it, but Maelynn hasn't concerned herself with it ever since the attack." The dark-brown furred Raposa told the three heroes.

Unlike the other two, Penelope had been observing the Hall carefully, trying to find the connection point, and when she did, as Rikki was talking, she brought his speech to a screeching halt when she jumped up in the air, her ears stretching and shooting out like claw shots and gracefully landing on the roof.

Rikki walked over to the heroes, taking Penelope's spot and turning to face where she was. He seemed fairly irritated with her as he said after her, "Hey! I know this place is broken, but you don't need to break it any more!"

Penelope huffed at him, her brown eyes glaring at him. "I didn't intend on doing so. I found what I was looking for."

They didn't seem to understand until Penelope stepped aside to reveal the broken sun emblem, which was split perfectly in half. "This emblem is the connection point." The rabbit heroine explained, only for Roselyynn to object as she shouted at her.

"Are you crazy? It's just a sun sculpture!"

Rolling her eyes at Roselyynn, Penelope used her ears to put the sun emblem back together, and it pulsed a brilliant white radiance.

"It may be, but the Sun likely has a great importance to this village, similarly to the Creator," Penelope began saying to Roselyynn and Thunder, with Rikki as her witnesses, and she continued her explanation.

"The bright, beautiful colors of this village likely reference the sun, and as the sun can be a symbol of the mind and intellect, it can also reflect here, as the Raposa here used their intelligence, but also had help from the Creator, the light of her guidance bringing the Raposa here hope and the courage to continue. That's how I figured it out, as I could sense the Creator's broken presence from this sun symbol."

Something that was noticable was how the three stopped paying attention at the end of Penelope's statement, as a young raposa girl came into the picture, her short lilac hair bouncing a little as she ran over. "Rikki, Rikki! The Creator is back!" She shouted at him, seeming unusually excited. At first, it was hard to tell, but then it was noticable that the Creator had begun helping with fixing the village now, her light shining down on each fixed building.

Maelynn's presence returned out of curiosity when the Creator restored the final building in great need of repair, which was the Creation Hall. The blonde seemed fairly panicked and confused when she approached. She saw the holy light surrounding their Creation Hall. "What's going on, Rikki?" Maelynn worriedly asked him.

He didn't need to reply to her, as the Creation Hall showed the work in progress. The bewilderment on her face was astounding, though the one who had a triumphant smirk happened to be Roselyynn. "See? The Creator didn't ditch you after all. We fixed the connection point."

Roselyynn got smacked across the face for how she was acting though. "You aren't Jowee, rosehead! Don't take the credit for doing absolutely nothing!" Penelope snapped at her. Thunder took Penelope's side, especially considering how pissed he was when Jowee acted like he was the one who found the Promise Conch.

Sure, he had a part in finding it, but Roselyynn and Thunder were the ones who actually had to deal with the hells of the Abyss they had to go through in order to get it. Roselyynn had almost drowned at some point, so the Creator had to quickly arm the heroine with scuba gear from their previous adventure or some… unfortunate things would've happened.

Thunder was probably the only hero who didn't drown underwater, which was pretty fortunate. Especially for the group in general.

Despite some of the dysfunctionalities of the three heroes of the western village that would've likely made them appear improper, Maelynn ignored that. Instead, she showed her sincerest apologizes to the heroes for her poor manners.

Turning to face her, the heroes were at first speechless. But something evident in Maelynn's eyes were the regret she held. The blonde stared down at the ground at first, before shaking her head and straightening herself up, adjusting the green necktie around her neck.

"As Mayor of the Renard Village, I humbly apologize for my poor manners. It was awful of me to have such poor manners towards you three in response to my loss of faith in the Creator and out of my jealousy for the village you originate from."

Maelynn's apology was accepted with no second thought (if Penelope didn't whack Roselyynn again, she'd probably have second thoughts). A genuine smile appeared on the usual frowning face of the Mayor, much to the surprise of Rikki and the lilac-haired raposa girl, and Maelynn sighed in relief, closing her eyes with a moment.

When Maelynn opened her eyes, a wider smile appeared on her face as her eyes twinkled with the revived hope she had previously lost- as bright and beautiful as the rising and setting sun. Her voice sounded much kinder when she spoke again. "Heroes, we of the Renard Village are in your debt. How may we help you?"

The current situation was explained to Maelynn, and shock appeared on her face upon hearing the news. Disbelief replaced the shock then, with her trying to refuse the truth.

"You mean to tell me that he also devastated your village, and captured everyone within it? That's truly wicked of him," Rikki and the other girl nodded in agreement to Maelynn's statement. As she put a hand on her hip, she asked, "Do you know where Tuxedo even put the villagers? Or the Mayor?"

"We don't. In fact, there's another part to the story." Maelynn and the others were curious as to what it happened to be. Though considering the information in particular, it wasn't necessary the best information.

And Thunder was the only one who was willing to tell the truth on the matter, mainly because he probably had more courage than Penelope and Roselyynn when it came to breaking pride. He gulped, and was about to make the confession, though Roselyynn ended up being the one to say it. "We left our village because we were sick of the Raposa being so lazy and over-relying on us! Conveniently after, White Tuxedo attacked and we were too late to stop him."

Moments of silence passed as Roselyynn broke down into tears.

"I can understand that, heroes. In times of prosperity, ignorance and selfishness can only bring despair to those who worked the hardest to create those times. It is only a flaw in us Raposa, and unless you overcome that, it will only lead to sadness and unhappiness. However, opposite times of suffering and sadness can also create the same despair when harmony is broken." Maelynn calmly stated as she walked towards the door of the Renard Village creation hall, opening the doors and motioning for Penelope, Roselyynn and Thunder to follow.

Rikki and the raposa girl were left outside to wait for Maelynn, having a feeling they'd know what was coming next.

Because on normal circumstances, the Mayor would never allow anyone into the Creation Hall unless the situation happened to be that dire.

-o-o-o-o-

Wow. This chapter had absolutely no breaks in it.

And if I tried to put breaks in it, it wouldn't work because it actually would disrupt the chapter.

Though this chapter might've been long and boring, but I apologize for that. We'll just have to see what'll happen next.

Like usual, please review if you'd like, I'd prefer if you didn't flame, and please tell me how I can improve.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


	4. Chapter 4: The Cavalier Soleil

And now we have the next chapter. I will let it explain itself somehow.

I own nothing but my OCs like usual.

Here's chapter 4.

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 4: The Cavalier Soleil

When the heroes entered the Creation Hall behind Maelynn, something that was very noticeable was the fact that it was quite dusty in here, but the area was in very good condition. Unfortunately, the only light source that could be seen was rays of the sunlight, shining down on a pedestal which was somewhat familiar to their own.

And once she got to the pedestal, Maelynn halted her movement and moved to the side, waiting for them to catch up. On the pedestal was a green book, which glimmered in the sunlight shining down upon it from the gold trimming and the golden raposa face on it.

At a first glance, you could mistake this book as the Book of Life. Except it wasn't.

Maelynn spoke once she saw that they were done with their observation. "The village west of ours- your village, holds the Book of Life. From what I know, it allows drawings to take a visible form and come to life, as its name implies, and it is the Creator's greatest tool. And from that book, you three were able to come into existence."

Their three individual gazes met Maelynn's own at her last sentence. She titled her head to the side, the sun-earrings that Maelynn wore shifted as well. "Am I right, heroes?"

They nodded, and she registered such, continuing with what she had to say. "Knowing such, there is a book in the village to the east- the village that I and my people live in. Ours is the Book of Truth, and instead of it allowing you to create things and bring them to life, instead, it shows the roots and the base of a drawing; or its outline. In a design, it may have flaws that aren't noticeable until the blueprint becomes a reality."

"So, basically, the Book of Truth is a book that allows the design, or rather, the blueprint, to be shown when an image is drawn into it and show what is really is? Why isn't it called the Book of Blueprints then?" Penelope questioned Maelynn, who didn't seem bothered by her comment regarding "The Book of Blueprints" joke.

Maelynn shook her head. "That's not all it can do. It also can show the true colors of a person, as well as their ideals. The Book of Life can do similar, as when someone other than the Creator draws into it; it warps the creations the user is trying to bring into the world into something else instead of the initial intentions, such as a divine punishment."

It kind of made the Wilfre incident suddenly make sense, though it was fairly questionable what would happen if you drew into the Book of Truth. Would it do the same as it did to Wilfre?

"Do you know what would happen if someone drew into the Book of Truth, Maelynn?" Today, it seemed like Penelope was asking all the questions. Though it was something to wonder about. The question made Maelynn have to recall any previous incidents (if there were any), and one hit her.

"I wasn't there when it happened, but it was when my father was Mayor. We needed blueprints for a building, but worried that we'd be a burden on the Creator if we asked, as she had already given us so many blueprints. So when one of the members on the town council attempted to draw the blueprint needed, the book turned him into a reflection of his true self, which was anything but evil."

There were sighs of relief, though Maelynn looked worriedly at the heroes. "I wasn't done talking. Shortly after, the book eradicated him by allowing his body to destroy itself, as some of the truths didn't match with some of his ideals, and he died. There have been no incidents in drawing in the Book of Truth since then."

Silence came back from its perch, though there were some looks of horror from Roselyynn and Thunder. Letting the air settle, the Renard Mayor went back to what she was saying before the conversation of what would happen if you drew in the Book of Truth came up. "We know so little about these books, but they are very powerful as shown to what happens if you abuse them. And in this time, we'll need both books to stop Tuxedo."

"But why? When Wilfre drained color out of the world, why weren't the Book of Life and the Book of Truth necessary?" Penelope asked, considering that situation was as dire as this one.

"Wilfre has drained color out of the world? When did he do that?"

"We'll explain later," Penelope said, making the grand decision. "Except, how will we stop White Tuxedo and try to find the other Raposa if we have no way to travel?"

Taking the Book of Truth in her arms, Maelynn had a smirk on her face before motioning the three to follow her.

"You'll see. Now, follow me, heroes."

In silence, they followed the Mayor, wondering where she was taking them now.

XxXxX

Rikki and that raposa girl (who introduced herself as Aurora) ended up being dragged along with Maelynn, Penelope, Roselyynn and Thunder to the Renard Raposian Port. There was questioning as to what was in the port, and what the Mayor was doing.

An important observation made was that the port in this village was larger and grander than the port they knew of. That made it quite likely that many things went to and from the Renard Village, may they be imported or exported.

There was great wonder and curiosity as to where they were going until they stopped at a spot in the port that appeared empty.

"Here we are!" Maelynn said, presenting the empty seawater of where a boat should've been. What, was the Mayor trying to troll them or something? As the heroes stood, seeming disappointed, annoyed, or there was a mixture of both, Rikki and Aurora seemed to know what was going on. And Rikki wasn't pleased.

"…Maelynn. You aren't going to summon 'it' again, are you?" He asked, beginning to freak out a little as he saw the smirk appear on her face. Rikki was quick to go up to the blonde and put his paws onto her shoulders, his eyes wide.

"Why do I have to come too? You know I hate adventures!"

Maelynn pushed Rikki away gently. "We have to go, Rikki. If we don't, not only our village is at stake, but the whole world is. We must summon it."

"Hey guys, what is this "it"? I don't understand." The two raposa looked over at Thunder, who seemed perplexed at what was going on. They looked at each other, and nodded, allowing Rikki to step back as Maelynn turned around, bringing the Book of Truth back into her paws and opening the book to a specific passage.

Kneeling, Maelynn set the book down on the ground in front of her, getting ready to perform a ritual of sorts. Pillars of sunlight shot up around Maelynn and the Book of Truth, greatly confusing the three heroes. However, something strange that they noticed was the fact that Aurora and Rikki didn't seem very surprised. In fact, they looked as if this had happened before.

Maelynn began her prayer/ritual thing and there was more confusion. At the end, she shouted, "May the chariot of the sun rise from the seas, to sail across the sky and the waters in our time of need!"

The pillars of light rose from around Maelynn up into the sky, and then crashed down into the waters by the port. Something in the depths below reacted to the light and then it quickly rose to the surface.

Before them, now on the waters by the port was a vessel that could make Turtle Rock go cry in a corner- and it was a golden Sun Boat that had six wing-like things floating from the sides which resembled rays of the sun, but they were a orangey-bronze color.

Penelope, Roselyynn and Thunder were in complete astonishment, and didn't notice when the sun boat activated a walkway so they could get onto the boat. Except Maelynn blocked the path. "This vessel is the only thing the Creator made us without us building it- The Sun Rider, the Cavalier Soleil. Isn't it beautiful?"

Rikki rolled his eyes. "No, Maelynn, I hate it. When it surfaces, it means we have to travel. And you know how much I hate adventuring."

The Raposa's pessimism was what snapped the heroes out of it, and they stared at him in astonishment. "How do you look similar to Jowee yet you hate adventures?!" Thunder asked, starting to worry now.

"I don't know who this 'Jowee' is, but I assure you, I'm not him. I'm the Clock-Keeper in this Village." Rikki explained, looking away from the heroes now so he didn't have to see their faces as they tried to ask him if he were some sort of doppelganger or not.

Maelynn led the heroes and Aurora onto the boat, with Rikki remaining stubborn and keeping this cold, angered look on his face as he stayed at the dock. Maelynn got off the boat and pushed him on, causing the boat to allow no more passengers.

Then the blonde went to the wheel, confusing the others. They knew that when they traveled around the world to find and defeat Wilfre, Pirate Beard was the one who commandeered the ship, not Mari or Jowee or whoever took charge. Then Crazy Barks was the one who handled the sail.

Once Maelynn began, she went to turning the Cavalier Soleil around and activating the sails, which appeared like the sun rising to begin the day, and then, the boat began to move.

It was noticeable how the wings were gone now, but they were helping row the sun ship. Penelope raised her ear to make up for the fact that her arms were too small and too stubby. "Um… Maelynn? How is the boat moving?"

"It's in sea mode," Maelynn replied back with a smile on her face before focusing on the steering wheel yet again and driving it. "Other than that, where should we go first? The closest location on the map is the city of Watersong."

The thought of the city brought a smile onto the heroes faces, especially Roselyynn and Thunder's, and the said two looked at each other with grins on their faces. "Ooh! We haven't been to Watersong lately. Wanna go there, Thunder?" Roselyynn asked, her lilac eyes glimmering as to hint something.

"You're wanting to go there knowing that Jowee won't be there, don't you?"

She nodded, and Thunder replied to the question Maelynn had asked. "Let's go to Watersong!"

Maelynn nodded, and then, the Cavalier Soleil went at full speed, heading towards Watersong.

The only thing that the heroes could hope for now was that Watersong wasn't in ruins or was empty like their own village was. Because if it were, they'd have to race against the clock before it ended up being too late.

-o-o-o-o-

Now our heroes are off to Watersong! What will they find there?

Well, we'll just have to see.

Regardless, I apologize for this chapter taking so long. I know I've been on a break from writing, but despite that, the Writer's Block has been as bad as ever.

Another thing to note is that other than the cat people, there are a few more other races in this story. The Raposa are still the main population that inhabits the world, though eventually, we'll get to seeing the other places where these races preside.

Especially considering how White Tuxedo has one of the more powerful clans of the Gato on his side.

Please review if you'd like, I'd prefer if you didn't flame, and please tell me how I can improve.

I will see you in the next chapter!

Ciao!


	5. Chapter 5: The Isolation

I hate my writer's block sometimes. I don't have much of an excuse for not working on this story though as I have quite the big plans for it and its story arcs, but now, we can finally get to Watersong and see what's going on there.

Like usual, I own nothing except for my OCs.

Here's chapter 5!

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 5: The Isolation

The Cavalier Soleil moved across the seas faster than Roselyynn, Thunder or Penelope expected, which the first two found amazing as they had to ride on Turtle Rock throughout their adventures. But one thing was definitely for sure, and that thing was that this boat was amazing.

Maelynn seemed pleased to find that the heroes were rather happy as they sailed, and she smiled at them. "I'm glad to see you like the voyage. If I remember correctly, did the Western Village have a vessel of their own?"

"It was a gigantic turtle called Turtle Rock. It had a whole village on its back." Thunder answered, and now Maelynn felt like their boat was inferior. Then again, the Western Village was much needier than the Renard Raposa were, so it made sense too.

And yet, she still appeared disappointed. "Maelynn, what's wrong? You're not upset about Turtle Rock, are you?" Thunder asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Maelynn didn't know exactly how to feel with the concept of a gigantic turtle. Man, did the Creator spoil the Western Villages' Raposa.

Then again, why was she complaining? They had a golden, flying sun boat! Though it didn't meant the concept of a Turtle with a village on its back wasn't cool, though it would be quite the sight to behold.

She adjusted her neckerchief and turned around, her golden blonde hair dancing in the wind, and she shook her head. "Never mind. I feel that I was getting emotional over nothing. Regardless of that, we should arrive to Watersong in around an hour or so, considering our ship is going as fast as it can."

The three heroes appeared to be amazed how Maelynn said they'd be there so quickly, and Aurora, Rikki and Maelynn didn't seem to understand why. Penelope was amazed that they'd get there so quickly (considering that she never rode on Turtle Rock and relatively wasn't with Roselyynn or Thunder during their adventures).

Though Roselyynn and Thunder was amazed they'd get there so quickly. On Turtle Rock, it would take all day for them to get to their destination. Either that, or all day and longer. It wasn't fun sailing on a ship all day, to be honest, as the heroes were more used to being able to get through with their adventures relatively quickly.

Time flew by as they waited for the hour to pass and eventually, they were at the shore of Watersong. Nothing seemed to have changed as much in the beach area. Though for some reason, there were very few Raposa about and they were unsure why. However, they did spot one Raposa, who seemed familiar with her fluffy brown hair and her thick glasses.

Roselyynn and Thunder took it upon themselves to interact with her and see what was going on. They got off the ship first and approached her. She seemed to blush at their presence. "Oh… h-hello. How may I help you?"

"Where is everyone? Usually, this part of Watersong has more Raposa." Roselyynn explained, and then, she recognized them with the adjustment of her glasses.

"Oh! You two must be those heroes that helped our village a while ago," she began, and then getting to answering Roselyynn's question. "Though yes, there usually is more Raposa. Everyone is mostly working on repairing the city from recent attacks."

Roselyynn and Thunder looked at each other worriedly, hoping it wasn't who they thought it was. As they were talking, Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora, with Penelope following, got off the Cavalier Soliel. Overhearing the conversation, Maelynn approached the Raposa girl. "I apologize for interrupting, but would you care to explain what you mean?"

Out of some panic, Thunder interrupted the girl (or Constance, as we shall call her) before she was able to speak. "Did… did Bakibeard come back from the dead for a third time?!"

"…No, no. Out of the blue, there was a tribal attack on Watersong, and it damaged our buildings in the city. Nobody knows why they attacked, but they definitely weren't Raposa."

Maelynn continued to inquire. "Okay then. How did these people look? And was there a Raposa with them?"

Constance shook her head in response. "There wasn't a Raposa with them. But they had cat ears, and they were led by a girl with sharp green eyes and short black hair with a black tail and black cat ears."

Rikki looked at Maelynn. "It must've been one of the Gato clans and their leader, who goes by the name Black Cat."

The heroes went silent and stared at her in complete and utter disbelief. Nobody really knew what to say at all, but Penelope had plenty of things, and the other two allowed her to speak first as a result.

"Who calls themselves Black Cat? That is one of the most uncreative villain names I've ever heard other than White Tuxedo." She calmly stated. Maelynn flipped her hair and shrugged in response. Though that wasn't all of it, of course. She had more to say on the matter.

"She likely picked that name as for one thing, it seems simple, and it sticks into your mind. Despite her name, she and her Gato clan are much stronger than they look."

Roselyynn got slightly fed up when the "Gato clan" was brought up again. She didn't understand who they are and why she kept mentioning them. At one point, the pink haired heroine rashly interrupted Maelynn and Constance's conversation and she angrily stamped her foot.

"Who are the 'Gato'?! I've never heard of such terminology before this happened!" She exclaimed out of her impatience, and startled them.

Maelynn frowned at Roselyynn and Penelope remembered something she forgot to explain, which was when Wilfre drained out the color from the world. She quietly tugged on Maelynn's violet dress and the blonde looked down at her. "Yes? What is it?"

From there, Penelope went into a long explanation. She spoke of her experiences when Wilfre surrounded and covered the world with shadow, of their late Mayor's death, and of Wilfre's first defeat.

They spoke of their second adventure together, as they were all there, and they talked of Circi and her attempts, the gathering of the Items of Power and also Circi's "fall" before the village was flooded with ink. Afterwards, they spoke of the grand feast they had before going back to their normal lives, finding that Circi wasn't dead* oddly enough though all seemed fine. And Penelope vanished after that period too, and they couldn't figure out where she went.

The third was done by Roselyynn and Thunder, who explained the draining of the world's color and their escape, the journey on Turtle Rock and the "End of the World" after Wilfre's second fall and his "death", only to find that when they returned, all was in peace and prosperity, and Penelope had also returned to the village.

Maelynn pieced it together while Rikki and Aurora seemed stumped, unsure of how it could work. Then, the Renard Mayor had a "eureka" moment and understood.

"No wonder I didn't understand. You were referring to the events of 'The Isolation'! Now it all makes sense."

In unison, the three heroes asked, "The Isolation? What is that?"

Maelynn smiled. "It began when an outside force came into contact with this world due to an accident. The specifics are hard to draw, though it possibly began when we were fully cut off from the West when your village was covered by shadow. Then, the period of the Isolation began, where it was impossible to make contact with your village, as it was too to make contact with other areas, such as the Eastern Winds, and the civilizations of Watersong, Lavasteam and the Galactic Jungle." She replied to them in her calmness.

"Huh? What do you mean? That barely makes any sense. And what does this have to do with the Gato clan?"

Rikki started to understand what Maelynn meant, and he added onto that. "Basically, what she's saying is that because of the Isolation, the ones chosen to participate were cut off from the rest of the world. And you three were created as a result of the Isolation, so it made you ignorant to the rest of it."

Thunder sighed. "Okay, but if we were created in that period, how do you guys know that we even exist?" He questioned them, crossing his arms. Maelynn was able to answer such to, in regards to the Creator.

"That's the thing. If the Creator too were fully isolated, the world would be left in ruin. She was able to still make contact with us, but she was brought and locked into the isolation sometime during the period of your second adventure."

"And the Gato? What about them?"

"The Gato are a naturally reclusive race for one thing, and they try to keep others out of their affairs. The Raposa make up most of the world's populace, but there are a few other species similar to ours, not just us, the Gato, the Baki and the other creatures that live in the wilds of our world."

The three heroes didn't exactly believe this. Though considering that the Gato did in fact exist, and there were apparently more, it would probably be a good thing to know the others. "…If there's more creatures like you and the Gato, what are they?"

Aurora hopped excitedly, raising her paw and saying, "Ooh! Pick me, pick me!"

"…Tell them, please, Aurora." Maelynn instructed and Aurora squealed excitedly.

"There are us, the Raposa, who are the common folk of many trades; the Gato, a cat-like race of warriors who go by tradition and religion as well as war," she began. "Then there's the Lapin, a bunny race that is said to be very intelligent and wise in the arts of magic, but they're more reclusive than the Gato. Lastly, there are the Mus, who are a mouse-like race of farmers."

"…Is Mus just another term for Baki? Baki are mouse-like." Roselyynn stated, still trying to grasp all of it, but the Mus confused her the most.

"Nope. The Mus and the Baki are similar, but different." Aurora replied, and the heroes were still trying to understand what they meant. It was then decided to not go any further, as it was only causing problems, and Maelynn went back to conversing with Constance, who stood there and heard the whole conversation awkwardly.

She then apologized for how rude they were to spark such a strange yet complex conversation in the first place, but fortunately, Constance didn't seem to mind this so much. They allowed Maelynn to have her space and speak with the other Raposa girl, leaving Roselyynn, Penelope and Thunder to investigate the area and see what had changed.

Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora were left to converse with Constance in order to understand from her what was going on. Upon getting all their needed data, they regrouped and discussed what they had just learned.

Roselyynn and Penelope let Thunder speak, considering how he had received the least amount of so-called "screen-time". Recalling their investigations, Thunder began to speak.

He cleared his throat for a moment before a look of determination appeared on his face. "There's little ruin in this area from what we saw as there's a smaller populace than in the city. However, we did notice that the lighthouse that the Creator had drawn had some damages, which we found odd as it wasn't in that state before."

"The lighthouse… what kind of damages did it have?" Maelynn asked out of curiosity. With Roselyynn and Thunder following, Penelope led the Renard Raposa to the lighthouse.

As said, it appeared to be damaged, especially where the gong was and it was chipped and cracked along various places. Maelynn had a closer look before noticing a familiar symbol. She ran her paw against it, murmuring, "The Blackpaw Clan…"

"What?" asked the others. Maelynn pointed to a symbol, which appeared to be a paw with a circle around it.

"…The Gato are really bad at coming up with names, aren't they?" Penelope asked upon examining it.

" I don't know. But we should investigate the city. Staying out here won't help us with finding out the truth." Maelynn answered, before looking for a way of travel.

Thunder went over to the canal and pointed at the Gondola. Maelynn frowned. "…Do you think it will fit all of us? There's three heroes and three Raposa, and the gondola doesn't look as if it will fit more than three."

"You go first, we'll come after." Roselyynn explained, allowing Maelynn, Aurora and Rikki to head into the city on the Gondola first.

"We'll meetcha in the city!" Aurora called, waving as the gondola left. The three waited. "Thank god they're not too pushy. Or forceful. I was worried that Maelynn would be like Mari and Rikki would be like Jowee."

Penelope shook her head at this. "No. Rikki and Jowee are basically polar opposites. Rikki seems more likable and less pushy though."

"And Maelynn seems intent on helping the Watersonians too." Thunder pointed out, though Roselynn seemed displeased at the name.

"…Watersonians? Really, Thunder?" Roselyynn asked, and he sighed and shook his head at her.

"They are basically the Watersonian Raposa though, Roselyynn. I'm unsure what to call the others." Thunder explained to Roselyynn, and she sighed at him, shaking her head.

Penelope smiled. "Wow. You two really like shaking your heads at each other and disagreeing, huh?"

"Penelope, shush!" Roselyynn and Thunder ordered her, and she put a hand on her hip, frowning at them.

Eventually, the Gondola came back for them. The heroes got on and rode into the city, wondering what was going to happen next.

-o-o-o-o-

So before you all ask why there are other races in this in stuff and why there's this "Isolation" thing.

It's kind of a head canon thing that came up a while ago, considering how there's the Gato and the Raposa in this story (in fact, the original story had the Gato in it). So it's like a "What If" in a sense.

I also wanted to try dabbling in the concept of other races in the Raposa world, especially considering how Raposa are the main race. I mean, we've seen a few different ones in Drawn to Life such as Baki and other enemies, and humans have shown up too (mainly in the secret area of DTL though, other than Mike).

It also had something to do with Next Chapter (DS) and the first game. To an extent, Next Chapter (Wii) did too, but I have a bit more experience with Next Chapter (I've played it over and over) and the first game. With Wilfre covering the village in shadow, it cut the Raposa in the main village off from the outside world. This may have caused limited contact with the outside world.

Another thing is also the map layout in Next Chapter (DS). What does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's because Turtle Rock, Watersong, Lavasteam, Galactic Jungle and Wilfre's Wasteland all appear to be on books. I mean, those are the five chapters of the story, but it's almost like it's another thing about the world being cut off. And only certain parts of the world are allowed to be in the story.

I mean, yes, the Raposa world has many areas in it, especially in areas around the Raposa Village, but I also wondered what the world could possibly be like outside those areas.

Besides that, in Next Chapter DS, Mike had a great influence on the world and if he were to wake up, it'd be erased from existence.

So that's why I thought when furtherly building on this version of the world in the story, considering how there's many "third chapter" like stories out there, "What if this made this happen, and what more is the world like?".

Despite this Author's Note is getting quite long, I have to add one last thing, which is the role of the Raposa in the story. In this first part, Mari, Jowee, Heather and most of the main village Raposa don't have much of a role. That's because they can't be as involved due to being captured.

In some other stories I've read, such as Drawn to Life: The Final Arc, the creation hero isn't the hero of the story, and instead, the Raposa are. So, before the question that is "Will the Raposa be heroes of the story too", the answer is yes.

In fact, we'll be seeing more of that in the next chapter. Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora won't be sticking in the sidelines and just be standing there, nor will the characters that join the party in the future.

So, to end off this long Author's Note, like usual, please review if you'd like, please refrain from flaming, and please tell me how I can improve.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


	6. Chapter 6: To Jivin' Rooftops

In this chapter, the heroes and the three Renard Raposa helping them are going to see what's up in Watersong and see how they can help the Raposa and Mayor Rose. We'll also learn a bit more about the Book of Truth and what it is, and also a bit more about the Gato.

Let's see what happens.

*Last chapter, about the thing with Circi not appearing to be dead afterwards. This is because of the fact that after beating Next Chapter Wii, instead of vanishing from the village, Circi still appears to be present there.

I own nothing but my OCs like usual.

Here's chapter 6.

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 6: To Jivin' Rooftops

On the Gondola, the heroes rode in, with Roselyynn and Thunder slowly rowed into Watersong, admiring the buildings as they sailed in. When they got to the stairway, they got out of the Gondola and climbed onto the streets of Watersong, wondering about the damages.

And then Roselyynn and Thunder were astonished. Not astonished like "Wow, this place is exactly as it was before. What were we worrying about?"

It wasn't like that at all, nor was it that simple. Now, the damages to the city weren't bad to the point where they were crumbling down. But they were really bad and evident in the outer walls of the city. In fact, it looked like there had been some kind of fighting in the city, but they couldn't tell who was fighting in it.

From what Roselyynn and Thunder remembered and saw, the Watersonians weren't really the type to have weapons of war. So it couldn't have been a battle between the Raposa and the Blackpaw clan (noting that their symbol was etched into the Lighthouse purposely and with force).

So maybe it was with another Gato clan. That seemed possible.

Though that theory was uncertain. Regardless of such, Roselyynn and Thunder had frozen into place, shocked by what they had just seen. Penelope didn't understand why they were acting up like this. She did try to push them out of place, but it wasn't very effective. She noticed how Aurora eventually came looking for them, and upon seeing her, Penelope called her and the Raposa's ears stuck up. She was very quick to run over.

"Whoa! There ya are! What took you so long?" Aurora asked immediately once she stopped in front of them, not needed to take a breath of recovery. Penelope stared at her with an expression of some unamusement but also annoyance and confusion.

"Actually, we've been standing here for a while." replied Penelope to Aurora, and then with a hand on her hip, the rabbit hero pointed at the other two "idiots" behind her, her eyes narrowing a bit as she looked at them. She sighed and flipped one of her ears and then continued what she was going to say. "In fact, these two idiots decided to stand here in astonishment like it was some kind of oh-so 'shocking' thing how this place looked fairly wrecked. I don't know why it's so surprising to them that it appears so, since I've only really been here once."

Roselyynn and Thunder snapped out of it when Penelope insulted them, but they found it weird when she said she had been there once before. Thunder's black eyes met Roselyynn's lilac ones and their gaze stayed for a moment before Roselyynn raised an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes at her. "Wait, what did you just say, Penelope?"

"Hmm? Did I say something odd?" Penelope asked her back, her eyes with a dull glimmer. Roselyynn motioned for Thunder to say something before crossing her arms as she stared down at Penelope and tried to appear intimidating. Thunder had to think about what to do before quickly nodding in reply and saying, "Yeah, you did. About being in Watersong before."

Penelope flipped one of her heads and huffed. "You might've just been hearing things," she dismissed the comment. "And besides that, I'm also pretty sure you weren't listening in the first place since you were staring at buildings." Then, the rabbit turned to face them, now both her hands (or maybe paws but they don't look like either) on her hips and she narrowed her eyes, her ears twitching as she looked up at them. Aurora stared confusedly at them, starting to feel tension in the air, while Roselyynn and Thunder knew where this was going.

She was probably going to start lecturing them on some incompetence they had by her form, noting that they were on hero business now. Penelope usually didn't have the need to lecture them, but she had a reason behind this. "In fact, why were you two spacing off ("Oh no. Here she goes…" Roselyynn sighed, ready to brace what was coming)? I thought you were better than that, considering that you were perfectly capable of going on an adventure without my assistance before this hell wreaked havoc! Honestly, you two, sometimes you're such idiots! I shouldn't have to remind you of how to act, now should I?"

As Penelope went off on Roselyynn and Thunder for being airheaded due to some shock, Maelynn and Rikki were able to catch up with them, as they decided to go speak with some of the Raposa of the town to gain some intel on the current situation. But they didn't really expect to find Penelope nagging Roselyynn and Thunder, while the two just dealt with it. Maelynn frowned, looking at Rikki and then at Aurora.

"…What happened while we were gone?" Aurora looked back at Maelynn and then at the three heroes. She looked around, trying to think of what to say, but came up with nothing, so she simply shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, having no idea.

She spoke at one point, interrupting Rikki while Penelope was still scolding them. "Mom mode happened I think? Or maybe angry mentor mode? No idea."

Maelynn cleared her throat and closed her eyes. "Okay, Penelope. That's enough now. You can stop mom-ing them." She stated, only to find that Penelope was so heated up with it that she wasn't going to stop. Maelynn raised an eyebrow and opened her eyes, sighing when she found that it didn't work.

"Penelope, seriously. You can stop." Nope. It still didn't work. Maelynn frowned, shaking her head at Penelope and starting to get upset. She called her name, but there was no response. She tried a few more times, but that didn't work either. Her face began to get red.

"PENELOPE!" Maelynn yelled, and then there was the sound of a loud crash and a boom and it came from a somewhat close-by area almost immediately after she spoke. The Raposa's ears stuck up and they all looked in the same direction.

The blonde Raposa trembled for a moment. "Did my… did my yelling just cause destruction?"

"This isn't Skyrim for the Creator's sake! It was coincidental, but that can't be good." Penelope spat back before summoning her Slinger and motioning for Roselyynn and Thunder to follow her, instructing Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora to stay there. The other two heroes followed Penelope up to the Jivin' Rooftops area (since that was where the sound went off), going up the stairs, only to find that the entryway had crumbled.

Rikki seemed fairly annoyed that Penelope told them to stay by the area where the Gondola was. "Who does she think we are? Does she think we can't protect ourselves or something?" He asked, quite frustrated before pulling out a weapon that resembled a gear but also a slinger and then heading to the area, with Maelynn following, the Book of Truth at hand.

Aurora scrambled after them too, and when they met up with the heroes again, they found that they were trying to fix the entryway. Maelynn rolled her eyes and then looked at the other two, a smile forming on her face as she showed them the Book of Truth and they knew what to do. She took a deep breath as she approached them.

The heroes saw the Raposa and were somewhat frustrated (well, Thunder stayed calm, but he didn't get why they ignored their orders). Before they could say anything and complained, Maelynn said, "You can't just access the area by moving rubble out of the way. It'll take way longer than necessary. Let me show you how it's done."

Roselyynn and Penelope sighed and then, they and Thunder got out of the way. Maelynn knelt down in front of the rubble, setting the book down and opening it to a certain page, and then she closed her eyes, beginning to pray to the Creator. A flash of an outline appeared, but vanished, and the rubble flashed with the same light as well.

Then, the rubble began to float up, and the outline flashed again. The rubble vanished, and the outline seemed visible now. Then, it appeared that the doorway was damaged, only for it appear that the Creator began to do her work, and the doorway was as good as new many moments later. A smile appeared on Maelynn's face again and she thanked the Creator, standing up and bringing the book up with her. Finally, she closed the Book of Truth, keeping it held at her side.

She turned around to face the Creation Heroes. "And now you can access the area. See? Isn't the Book of Truth helpful?"

Roselyynn shrugged as she and Thunder began following Penelope into the area. "I guess. It wouldn't be as effective as the Book of Life though."

"Ah, but can the Book of Life create templates?" Maelynn questioned back.

"No, it can't," the pinkette replied. "But at times it seems more like an accessory to the Book of Life rather than an actual book? I dunno."

Maelynn groaned at their disrespect, and then she, Rikki and Aurora began to follow them into Jivin' Rooftops, only for the heroes to stop and stare at them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you guys think you're going?" Thunder asked them, tilting himself to the side to look at the Raposa. Roselyynn and Penelope seemed just as equally confused as he was.

"With you. Knowing how the entry was crumbled, more of the area may be damaged. And also knowing the Blackpaw clan may show their faces, we can't leave you to face them without knowing how to deal with them."

The heroes disagreed. "We can't risk putting you three into danger, especially considering that Maelynn has the Book of Truth with her," Thunder argued. "And plus, it'd be bad if we lost another Mayor and another Book."

Aurora sighed and Rikki seemed even more displeased than before as the Heroes turned around and began to head into Jivin' Rooftops once more. Maelynn was about to make another point only for Rikki to interject. "Stop acting like we CAN'T protect ourselves. I don't know where you got the mentality that we're defenseless, but we're more than capable of protecting ourselves, okay?!"

Roselyynn chuckled and was about to bring up the point of weaponry. And then, there was a ching and Roselyynn was hit in the back, losing a health piece and she and the other two turned around to see the gear on Rikki's slinger-like weapon return to him. Maelynn pulled out a rapier, keeping the Book of Truth in place and Aurora got out a magic wand-like weapon.

The heroes stood aside as their three Raposa companions began to go in, and Maelynn made one last remark. "Just to let you know, I'm not going to lose the Book of the Raposa so easily, nor would anyone really try to steal it unless they knew what it did. Say it's the "New Testament" to the Book of Life, if you would."

Penelope looked at the others somewhat confused. "Did she just say the Book of Truth is like a new testament to the Book of Life? And what did she just call it?" She asked, and the other two shrugged. This was something that had to be looked into.

They followed the three into Jivin Rooftops, not noticing someone watch them from a rooftop looking over the area and with a flash of shadow; they seemed to follow into the area after them.

XxXxX

_Jivin' Rooftops_

XxXxX

It took the heroes only a brief moment to catch up with Maelynn and the other two Raposa into Jivin' Rooftops, which appeared to be damaged. But the three also seemed to have stopped. "Maelynn!" Penelope called, only for an exclamation mark to appear over her head, and she, Aurora and Rikki looked at her in surprise, approaching them, but cautiously.

"What did you mean about…?" Penelope was whacked on the head by Maelynn with the Book of Truth and she shushed them, and in a harsh whisper, she told them, "Be quiet! There are some Gato ahead. Talk after we figure out what they're saying."

She cocked her head over to the side, and the Raposa hid up against a wall in an alleyway, and motioned for the heroes to do the same. Once they did, Maelynn looked out to see two Gato talking, but they didn't look like they were from the Blackpaw clan. Looking closer, on their capes, she saw a silver paw but with claws above it and there were three of them. Then, there were two curved slashes by the paw that were on opposite sides of it and were curved diagonally.

Maelynn's eyes widened and she hid up against the wall again. "By the looks of it, there are two warring tribes in Watersong at the moment." She answered quite worriedly, keeping her voice down, and her teammates frowned.

"…Did you see a catfight?" Thunder asked, not resisting. Maelynn shook her head quickly, and replied a bit louder, rather flustered, "No, there wasn't a fight! There would be a lot more noise if that were the case!"

"Maelynn, chill! We don't want to let the Gato tribes know we're here," Rikki reminded her, keeping his voice down. "Besides, which tribe was it? Most tribes wouldn't be willing to come to Watersong to hunt down the Blackpaws, unless it was _them_."

"Yeah, it was _them_, Rikki. Who else would be willing to come to Watersong?" The Renard Mayor quickly replied in a harsh whisper.

Thunder raised his hand, and Maelynn sighed. "Yes? What is it?" she asked.

"Who are you talking about? I don't understand." He asked in response, putting his hand down.

"The _Whiteclaw_ clan! They're the opposing tribe against the Blackpaws." Then, it went silent. The Raposa had no idea why it went silent, but then Maelynn stuck her head out to see what was going on just in case. A breeze flew through Jivin' Rooftops, and tension in the air began to linger from the silence that resulted. As Maelynn observed the two Whiteclaw gato, who appeared to be on guard and watching for enemies.

Why did the heroes go silent though? Well…

"…The Whiteclaw clan." Penelope suddenly growled, and Maelynn moved her head to look at Penelope, as did Rikki and Aurora, who had started to space out from waiting. Her small brown eyes seemed dull and also irritated for some reason.

"Yeah? What about them?" Aurora asked Penelope, only for the rabbit to repeat the name bitterly, and it was hard to figure out what was going on until she made a certain remark. What was it?

Raising her voice, she asked, "May I please speak with their leader or something? Just HOW BAD are Gato at coming up with names? And why?"

Maelynn quickly looked out at the Whiteclaws to see if they heard, and fortunately, they didn't, but the first Creation Hero wasn't done talking. "What, is their leader's name White Cat or something? If that's the case, I'm ready to go out and slap them."

As the Renard Mayor continued to look out, her blood ran cold when they (as in the Whiteclaws outside that were a fair distance away) looked in the direction from where they were and she quickly whipped around the wall as she began to pale up. She knew they were starting to come in their direction. Rikki noticed this and when it was evident that it wasn't going to be that easy to silence Penelope, he decided to get it done himself.

"Shut-up! They're coming!" He snapped at her in a low voice and Penelope went silent. Roselyynn smirked. "That's what happens when you run your mouth." The tall hero whispered and gears began to turn in Penelope's head.

When the Whiteclaw Gato were closer by, Penelope asked, "Maelynn, do you know if the Gato go in depth when searching for foes?"

She nodded in response, her earrings slightly jingling. "Yeah. Most Gato are like that. Why?"

There was silence for a moment before it was understood where Penelope was getting at. "Oh. OH." Now Maelynn began to freak out, as did the others except for Penelope, who seemed to regret something. As she heard the quiet chatter of her comrades, thoughts came into her head.

"_Great. Now look what it's come to_," Penelope thought to herself. "_Roselyynn and Thunder are definitely going to hate me once they find out some truth about me, but I have no choice._"

Penelope took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Familiar shadow began to dance around her, which caught Roselyynn and Thunder's attention, and quietly, they asked, "Penelope? What are you…"

But they were cut off when it began to engulf her, and at first, they thought that Penelope was actually their old foe, Wilfre, in disguise, only to find that wasn't the case. She changed into a shadowy version of herself, and with her voice slightly distorted, she spoke. "_**It appears that it's come down to this. Whatever you do, don't freak out.**_"

Penelope waved her now shadowy paws back and forth, and medium sized shadowy circles appeared under herself and her comrades. Roselyynn and Thunder were about to question what was going on and what happened with the Penelope they "knew" only for her to pull them down into the shadow circles and she slipped into her own. The shadows blended in with the environment so it didn't appear they were there.

"_**Don't utter a word, understand? They'll hear us if we do.**_" She explained, and it went silent as the two Whiteclaw Gato approached. One of them appeared to be a female, with short hair tied into pigtails, and another was a guy, who had longer fur that slightly resembled the mane of a lion. They also appeared to be adorned in red robes, with white capes trimmed with red with their emblem on the back.

They looked at each other, and the girl spoke first. "I could've sworn I heard someone talkin' around here, but they must've left?"

"Or maybe they're Blackpaws hidin' from us. The Chieftess would be pissed if we didn't search the area just in case." The male Gato told her back, and the female sighed.

"Kay then. Let's do a quick search before reporting back to Chieftess White Blaze. She'll be mad if we stand around and wait for too long." The female stated before they searched around in the alleyway. They couldn't find anything, despite checking everywhere possible. Upon exiting the alleyway, they nodded to each other before rushing back in the direction they came, and the heroes and the Renard waited a few minutes before Penelope allowed them to re-emerge, and with an inhale, she forced herself to change back to normal before exhaling.

But Roselyynn and Thunder were quick to point their weapons at Penelope, who didn't see what their problem was. Right before an interrogation began, Maelynn let out a big sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness you did that, Penelope! We would've been captured for sure if you hadn't saved our skins."

"Are you CRAZY?! She's a possible threat!" Roselyynn exclaimed, her face reddening.

"Uh-huh! She might be allied with Wilfre if that's the case!" Thunder added, just as freaked out as Roselyynn was. They would've expected the three Renard Raposa to be on their side of the argument. And yet, that simply wasn't the case.

Aurora burst out laughing before saying, "Aw, you're just being paranoid! At the moment, that Wilfre seems to be less of a problem than White Tuxedo and his Gato allies. Plus, being captured by one of the warring Gato clans would be bad too. He seems to be less of a problem at the moment."

Roselyynn narrowed her eyes. "You've gotta be kidding me." She stated as she watched the three Raposa begin to leave the alleyway, and Aurora smiled, motioning for them to follow. Penelope easily escaped from weapon point and followed, and hesitantly, they did the same.

However, as they moved, they did so cautiously.

The figure that had watched them before emerged from the shadows on a rooftop and watched the heroes go by. Shadow flickered in the air above them as they observed in silence. Noting the current situation, they sighed. "For now, I'll keep watching until there seems to be a purpose to actually 'help' my foes."

Before moving along to the next spot to keep an eye on him, he frowned. "Though I'm starting to wonder who the 'antagonist' is now."

The shadowy figure, or rather, Wilfre, the raposa whom the heroes and most of the Raposa from the Raposa Village thought was dead, hid back in the shadows and kept moving, following the heroes in their tracks as they moved ahead.

Though of course, they didn't know what was to occur next. Nobody did really, as it wasn't like they could move through time.

But it couldn't be good, especially if the fighting amongst the Whiteclaws and Blackpaws kept on occurring in Watersong.

So the best that could be done was to move ahead.

Because now, that was what they had to do.

-o-o-o-o-

I had to rewrite this chapter at first since I didn't really agree with it, but I liked how it turned out. I was going to have more depth about the Book of Truth, but I'll dive more into that the next chapter considering the length of this one.

But I've gotten a lot of inspiration for this story lately considering what's to come up ahead.

So, as for the next chapter, we'll learn more about the Book of Truth (as I couldn't cover it like I wanted in this chapter), we'll learn more about the Gato and the enemy at hand and also Wilfre's role in the story.

If you'd like, you may review, though try to refrain from flaming I suppose, and please tell me how I can improve.

That's all I have to say for now.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


	7. Chapter 7: White Blaze

I don't really have much to say for this intro, so let's just get to the point, but first…

garland of eden: Thank you so much for your reviews! Sorry if I replied a bit late. I was worried about what people would think of how I was making the world in this story and the ideas of the races and stuff, but I'm glad to know a few people like the concept. I'm glad to know you like Rikki!

I own nothing but my OCs like usual.

Here's chapter 7.

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 7: White Blaze

As the heroes moved forward, they found that the living statues were as dangerous as ever when they rushed at them with their attacks, but there were also Baki they had to deal with. So far, they hadn't had to deal with any Gato, but that wasn't the biggest problem they had to deal with now.

Y'know how there was that explosion and the sound of crashing and stuff before? Well, it made it so parts of the stage were destroyed. For the most part, the heroes and the Raposa could easily move across with a few jumps, but they didn't have the platforms the Creator had drawn due to a lack of the Book of Life and any easels that could be used to create them was destroyed.

Maelynn was able to use the BoT as backup of course, but it only made them more curious about the Book itself. Why was the Book of Truth there? And when exactly was it created? She never stated when it was, though it might've been implied that it and the Book of Life were created at the same time, but then again…

"Hey Maelynn?" Thunder suddenly spoke as they were fighting a few hordes of Baki that had gotten into their path. Maelynn easily took down some with her rapier before looking back at Thunder, her blonde hair whipping behind her when she turned.

"Yes, um… Thunder, I think it was?" She asked, forgetting his name a moment as they kept moving forward.

"What exactly is the Book of Truth? I know you explained it to us, but did your village always have it?" Thunder asked Maelynn, quite unsure.

Maelynn shook her head. "No, not always. Why? Did I imply that?" She inquired rather worriedly.

"…Yeah, kinda." Roselyynn stated, and Maelynn bit her lip.

"Well, I can tell you that it's more recent, but in a sense, the Creator did use it to help us build our village and grant us blueprints- but she had the book, not us. Some events that happened due to this book occurred during the Isolation."

"And what about that one guy who got punished?" Penelope squeaked and Maelynn frowned.

"Wait, what of him? The one who drew in the book?"

"Yeah. You said you weren't there when he tried to draw in the Book, but your father was, implying that you've had it for a while."

Maelynn was surprised at how little she actually said about the book itself. "Yes, yes, my father was a witness to the event. But what I meant by I wasn't there was that I actually wasn't present at the time. I was still training to be Mayor and I was off doing a chore." She explained.

The heroes went silent and looked at each other. Thunder asked the question again. "…Okay, so when did you get the Book of Truth?"

The Renard Mayor had to ponder on it as they continued moving through, but just before she could answer, Rikki stopped them, telling them to quiet down and hide upon noticing something. The heroes nor Maelynn had a clue what he was thinking, but Aurora did. Maelynn hadn't been paying as much attention due to thought. As for Aurora, though she wasn't as scared as Rikki.

"The Whiteclaw Chieftess is nearby! We gotta hide quickly before she sees us!" He indicated. Penelope's eyes widened in response when they looked at her.

"I can't use my abilities a lot in a day, or else I lose balance and control of myself. My shadow ability is un…" Penelope was quickly cut off when she was cut off and saw the silhouette of some Gato, with one looking bulkier than most of the ones they saw.

As they were freaking out, Penelope analyzed the building they were close to and figured out a plan. "Ay, Roselyynn, Thunder, can you change forms into something that can easily climb up walls? Like Spiderman or something?"

"Well, we have these spider-like forms. Why?" Thunder asked.

Penelope pointed at the building and then the other two heroes saw what she was getting at. Roselyynn flipped her hair before huffing. "Alright Thunder, let's switch."

They were quick to change into their spider forms (which really didn't resemble spiders at all, as Thunder's was more of a thunder cloud and Roselyynn looked like a mutated rose with three thorny stems), and quickly went up to get to the rooftop. Penelope then got the Raposa to shut up and with a deep breath, she went into her shadow form again and tried to hide them in the shadows as the Chieftess and some Gato approached. Then, she tried to move herself and the Raposa into the alleyway to better hide.

When the heroes saw them step in, they first saw the two guard Gato from earlier, and they seemed to be talking to her about something, but it was better understandable when they were out in the open.

Then, they saw the Chieftess, and wow, was it evident. She wore this fancy cape with golden fur trimmings around the collar and the ends, with tiger stripes around the back and reaching to the front. In her hair, there were two feathers that glimmered with the color of fire and resembled the feathers of a phoenix. The color of her hair was also interesting. It was a white hue with a bit of a hint of grey, which faded into a greyer but slightly brownish hue around the tips. Her ears had the same hue as the tips of her hair and her striped tail was the same brown and also a grayish color. She was armed with a spear.

Her inquisitive eyes shifted around curiously as the guards followed. "So, you said that you smelled the scent of some Raposa wandering about the Rooftops? Where?"

"We're… we're unsure, ma'am. We could've sworn we had seen something that might've been Raposa earlier, but they appeared to have vanished. To make all matters worse…" The female guard began, only for the Chieftess to shush her quickly.

"The Blackpaws are irrelevant, soldier. You told me that you started to pick up a scent. We cannot have any foxes interfering in our affairs here." said she very firmly. She turned away and began to walk around, investigating the area. However, she picked up an odd yet suspicious scent that seemed to be coming from somewhere nearby.

For some reason, it was the scent of roses. And also, something that kinda smelled like it was burning, like electricity or something. From her investigation, it appeared to be coming from above. The Whiteclaw Chieftess paused in her tracks as the two guards stood back. She looked up, trying to find where this weird scent was coming from.

"Chieftess White Blaze, is something the matter?" asked the male guard as Roselyynn and Thunder tried to hide themselves by somewhat crouching down (in their spider-like forms). White Blaze didn't reply, only to pull out her spear.

"I smell something weird. I can't pinpoint where it's coming from." stated she, as she still tried to look around.

Penelope was starting to get worried that White Blaze would find Roselyynn and Thunder as she hunted around, trying to see them. She also started to feel her power going unsteady, due to a lack of control. She tried her best to keep in control though so they wouldn't get caught. However, when the sunlight started to shine down on Roselyynn and Thunder, making them a bit more evident (especially Thunder), White Blaze noticed something was up on the rooftop, noting how whatever was up there was hating the sun as it beat down on them.

A predatory gleam appeared in the Gato's eyes as she was going to go and catch her 'prey', carefully starting to sneak over in order to start climbing up. Penelope, however, panicked and lost control, taking everyone out of the shadows and making the Renard Raposa and herself tumble out.

The guard and White Blaze went silent upon hearing the sudden noise, and noticed the four figures. The three were unamused, and changed their targets, with White Blaze taking the lead and cautiously coming in. Penelope tried to quickly hide them again, but it was too late, as White Blaze aimed her spear at her head as she was collapsed over. The Gato's face was dark as she towered over the tiny rabbit hero, and Roselyynn and Thunder saw from the Rooftops.

White Blaze looked emotionless and rather unsympathetic to them. Maelynn was displeased at how Penelope blew their cover, but she honestly could blame the poor heroine. Penelope appeared to be somewhat pained and freaked out.

The chieftess snapped and spoke to the two guards. "Well, we've found the scent. Take them away and lock them up. We cannot have Raposa interfering."

Aurora attempted to protest. "But we're not interfering! We're trying to-"

"Quiet, child." White Blaze ordered back, appearing quite bored at the whole ordeal now; like it had been going on for too long. "Elanor, Aelius, take them away."

Roselyynn and Thunder were safe from the Gato, but all they could do was watch as their allies were hauled off. And if they attempted to do anything, all it would do is make the situation worse because they would also probably get captured and then all would go bad.

They also didn't know where White Blaze or her two guards were taking the four of them. And without the Book of Truth (which seemed more useful now that they really though about it) or a way to contact the Creator, basically, the duo was in hot water.

Once it was in the clear, Roselyynn and Thunder got off the building as they remained in their spider forms and then changed into their regular forms. Both were at a loss for words.

"How are we supposed to get them back now!? This is really bad. We need Maelynn and Penelope!" exclaimed Roselyynn. The pink-haired heroine was starting to tug on her hair and pace back and forth in panic. Thunder tried to calm her, but he started to also find himself in a pit of despair too.

What if there was terrain they couldn't cross as a result of this chaos? Maelynn was practically required to go anywhere due to having the BoT. And Penelope probably could open portals and stuff if she were here.

Oh! What was the point? The journey was over and the heroes were helpless…

…Or were they?

"I never thought I'd see the day where the likes of you two were put into a bind." That voice! It was too familiar… no. It couldn't be.

Roselyynn and Thunder looked back to see a very familiar (and unwelcome) face. No hesitance was taken to pull out their weapons and step back when they saw Wilfre. He was the last raposa the both of them wanted to see. And yet, he was back again! What, did he just not die?

"You! How come you're not dead? We saw you die and you should've been permanently eliminated!"

Wilfre rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Honestly, it's really hard for me to die. It's funny how you people think I'm dead when I seem to disintegrate. I thought I was dead last time too until the world was released from Mike's dream."

Roselyynn and Thunder glared at him. Wilfre sighed at them, still appearing to be annoyed they didn't understand. "Everyone thought they were dead when the world was disconnected. But here we are now, with this isolation being over. Trust me when I say I don't intend on being a threat."

Roselyynn aimed her shooter at him and began charging up her shot. A murderous gleam was in her lilac-colored eyes. "You're a threat by just existing. This time, the world will finally be cleansed of you!"

Wilfre shook his head at the heroes' stupidity because they still didn't get it. So, they attacked him and Wilfre was able to avoid their attacks with ease before stopping them with shadow goo and locking them into place. "Oh, for the love of the Creator! Stop with your nonsense. This pointless fighting is getting us nowhere!"

"Wow, lookit you. You're actually saying fighting is pointless." Thunder mocked Wilfre. He ignored it, because honestly, this wasn't the problem.

"If I were a threat, wouldn't I be the villain here? The problem in itself is bigger than all of us. Killing me would only make it impossible for progression."

Roselyynn's face was starting to redden from rage. "Stop making this harder! You're probably the true villain here, and I refuse to take YOUR help!"

"Well…I hate to admit it, but…" Thunder began, only for Roselyynn to stare at him alarmed.

"But what, Thunder?! Don't tell me you're siding with him!"

Thunder frowned at her. "Roselyynn, if Wilfre were honestly the villain here, wouldn't he have started acting on his plan a while ago? He did this the first time and the second time, and we'd know he's a threat because he'd show up earlier. This is the first time he's shown up now."

Roselyynn tried to figure out an objection. She pondered on it and tried to think, only to find that Thunder was right. And she couldn't find any holes in his logic either because he had a point. Roselyynn didn't want to admit he was right. So, she only huffed and went silent, immediately looking away. In a lower voice, she proceeded to start interrogating Wilfre. She had to be able to prove Thunder wrong.

"Why are you showing up now, Wilfre? And why are you saying the 'real' problem is bigger than all of us? Aren't you allied with White Tuxedo? Saying that you aren't a threat is an act of deception."

Wilfre crossed his arms. "Well, I know that siding with White Tuxedo would be a mistake. If we were allied, I would've shown up with him in the first place. But we aren't allied, since it would only lead the world to its destruction. This isn't like what happened with Mike."

Roselyynn and Thunder glared at him. "You tried to drain color from the world to save yourself! And maybe everyone else too, but that doesn't matter! How can this be different from Mike's situation?!" Roselyynn snapped at him.

"Because we're here now. And worse will happen if we don't protect the second book, or its holder." Wilfre simply answered. There was a long pause.

Thunder was starting to go back on what he said prior knowing that Wilfre knew about the Book of Truth. What if Roselyynn was right? What if he really was a threat? He just didn't know, but he and Roselyynn drew their weapons again.

"How do you know about the Book of Truth? Are you planning to use it for your own ideals?"

Wilfre was starting to get annoyed with the heroes once again because they honestly weren't getting the point. "I'm not interested in using the Book of Truth. But we can't let White Tuxedo get it, or we're dead. As much as I don't want to help you, I'm afraid that we don't have a choice in this matter."

"So we're being forced to work with you now, huh?" Roselyynn asked. Wilfre rolled his eyes and proceeded to walk off.

"I'm not forcing anything. Still, do you want to get your companions back or not? We both know that they just got captured, yet we've been standing here; pointlessly arguing with each other when there's a problem at hand."

Roselyynn and Thunder went silent. Now the both of them didn't want to say he was right. Wilfre could tell that was the case, but he didn't let it bother them. With the pair crossing their arms, they proceeded to hesitantly follow Wilfre, hoping that they were able to get their companions back.

…Or kill Wilfre if they found out he was actually deceiving them like he was so skilled at doing.

-o-o-o-o-

Wow, this chapter took a while. And now, Roselyynn and Thunder are stuck with Wilfre in hopes of getting their companions back! But is he really lying and he's the true villain?

Ok, so I'm just going to give a quick spoiler here, soooo…

Spoiler: Wilfre's not the villain. I mean, it would make sense if he was, but he's not in this case. It doesn't mean that Roselyynn and Thunder trust him though (they still don't, and won't throughout the story).

I don't really have much to say other than that.

Like usual, please review if you'd like, please refrain from flaming and please tell me how I can improve! I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing so I can better myself.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


	8. Chapter 8: Working with Wilfre

And we're back! I don't really have much to say, other than that.

But will Roselyynn and Thunder be able to tolerate Wilfre as they're trying to find their companions? Will they end up confronting White Blaze once again?

I own nothing but my OCs.

Here's chapter 8!

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 8: Working with Wilfre

When Maelynn, Rikki, Aurora and Penelope were hauled off, upon trying to reason with the hardy Whiteclaw Chieftess, they learned a few things about her and her clan, and why exactly they were in Watersong.

"Why are you so insistent on taking us away? Are we going to be hostages or something?" Maelynn asked the Gato as they were moving. They didn't stop moving, as they had somewhere to be. Still, she answered.

"No. We intend to release you. We're only taking you away for your safety. Raposa are not to interfere in the affairs of the Whiteclaws and Blackpaws. They will only be hurt in response, and that is not the way of the Phoenix." She replied back, confusing the four.

"Why are you in Watersong then? There is no need to wage war in a peaceful place like this. You've caused enough destruction." Maelynn indicated. White Blaze disagreed with her, but it wasn't because of the war. It was the part about destruction that got her.

"It wasn't we who caused the destruction. The clan of the Raven has gone against the way of the Gato people. They've allied with a Raposa in the darkness and have gained much more powerful weaponry than before. It was _they _who caused the destruction, not _us_." explained White Blaze.

Aurora frowned at them. "But why are you in Watersong? You didn't explain it, Miss White Blaze." The Chieftess glared at them, causing the quartet to freeze up, and were silenced. She looked away and continued to speak.

"The clan of the Raven is lost now, and are bringing death and destruction as result of whom they are following. They are cunning and may try to escape, but the Phoenix always follows. Even their own chieftess knows we will rise from the ashes and hunt them. They threaten the good of the world with their actions."

Aurora leaned over to Rikki and whispered, "Wow, she sure spews a lot of exposition about birds. What is she, an ornithologist?" White Blaze's ears stuck up as well as their tail and they immediately stopped.

Then, her demeanor changed. "I-I am not a bird scientist! I was talking about the symbolic birds of our clans and how our actions are similar to our birds! Were you not getting that from what I was saying?"

"Nah. You sounded like a bird scientist to me." Aurora bluntly replied. White Blaze's face reddened up before she turned away and began walking faster. Alarmed, Elanor and Aelius pushed the four and they had to walk faster to keep up with their speed.

Welp. This was going to take a while, wasn't it?

XxXxX

(Jivin' Rooftops)

Roselyynn and Thunder currently hated all that they were doing. They fought through waves of Baki and statues that were trying to kill them, but at this point, they were farther than they initially had to go in Jivin' Rooftops. And from there, more and more was shattered and broken.

They were unsure why they still hadn't seen much of the Whiteclaws or Blackpaws yet. Weren't they supposed to be fighting after all? Unless… did they stop fighting?

No… no, no. That couldn't be it. And it didn't look like they were waiting to fight…

"Hmph. This is strange." Wilfre suddenly stated, breaking the two creation heroes out of their thoughts. They were unsure why Wilfre was suddenly saying that, but they listened anyway.

"What is strange, Wilfre? If it's some kind of evil monologue revealing your plan, we're not listening." Roselyynn stated, crossing her arms. She was close to childishly ignoring all he had to say.

Wilfre shook his head at the two of them. Regardless of such, he decided to at least clarify what he was talking about. "You both know that I don't monologue. I feel that something seems off. We're nearing the point where the opposing tribes are to be fighting, yet none of them are in sight. I feel like we might be nearing a trap set by one of the two tribes."

Flipping her pink hair, Roselyynn crossed her arms again and stared at Wilfre. "Oh really. Then why don't you summon one of your minions to see if we're nearing a trap? You're really good at doing that." Wilfre's eyes glared at Roselyynn's, and he huffed at her.

"No matter what we do, it'll let either side know we're here. We'll need to take an alternate route to prevent detection." He explained, waving his hand and opening up a white portal. Roselyynn and Thunder gasped and stepped back. It was troublesome he could open a portal without his scepter, but the two of them didn't know what he was going to do.

Hastily, Roselyynn and Thunder drew their respective weapons and aimed them at the shadowy Raposa. Wilfre raised an eyebrow at them and analyzed their weapons. He clicked his tongue at them disapprovingly once he determined what he was going to do in this situation. "Hmph. You still don't trust me despite the fact we have a truce."

Wilfre snapped and dismissed the portal and crossed his arms. "Look, how else are we going to get across this area without some kind of trap being triggered? We can't get captured like your friends."

Thunder tried to pinpoint another route (though it was difficult. They were close to getting out of the Jivin' Rooftops area and there was mostly rooftops and apartments in this area). Upon seeing they could only go forward, sheepishly, he stated, "Well, it's not like the road is going to suddenly blow up in front of us, right?"

The three of them paused when they heard something whooshing at them. Perplexed, Roselyynn and Thunder looked around, trying to figure out what it was. Wilfre looked up and panicked, seeing that of a missile flying down from the sky. Without any kind of permission, Wilfre suddenly set up a protective barrier around himself and the heroes and covered his ears.

The protective barrier was like a shadowy shell. Roselyynn was disgusted by the barrier mainly due to its essence, and crinkled her nose at it. "Wilfre! What the hell was that…" Roselyynn had no time to scold Wilfre once they heard a shattering kaboom outside of the barrier. It protected the three of them from the blast and any debris thrown from it. Once the shaking and destruction stopped, a few minutes after, Wilfre dispelled the barrier.

Knowing that one of the two clans was causing the most destruction, the fact that _missiles _of all things were being fired indicated two things. 1) That was likely what caused destruction in the main area of Watersong in the first place; and 2) the Gato clans were out for each other's blood. Roselyynn and Thunder had a sliiight feeling that it wasn't the Whiteclaws who would go and blow up parts of a peaceful Raposian city in a fight against an opposing clan. They seemed a bit more primitive, if anything.

Now, Roselyynn and Thunder were appreciating Wilfre's shadowy abilities a bit more than usual. As Wilfre pulled out a familiar but tattered page, Roselyynn asked, "Well. Thanks for saving us, I guess. Do you think you can make a bridge or something?"

Wilfre summoned a trident and shook his head. "Nope. I'd need a template for that. This old trident template is the only thing on me right now." The creation heroes sighed as their old foe looked across the ravine made by that missile. He figured that there was only one thing he could do right now.

He opened another portal and stared at the two of them. "This is the only mode of transportation we can really use right now. We're almost at the end of this place, and now, we need to find your friends." The two heroes looked at each other and groaned before hesitantly going into the portal. Wilfre followed them, and when another portal opened, they reappeared at the door at the end of the level.

Upon going through, they reappeared on the other side and went through the door back to Watersong. However, Wilfre proceeded to disguise himself as a random townsfolk Raposa out of some kind of paranoia. Roselyynn and Thunder looked back at Wilfre confusedly, not getting the disguise. He shushed them and urged them to not give him any unnecessary attention. He wasn't well liked by the Watersonians for obvious reasons.

In fact, he wasn't liked by the Lavasteamians or the citizens of the DOTROTPOTUSF (the long abbreviation for the Democracy of the Republic of the People of the United Space Fortress) in Galactic Jungle. It was mostly for what he did during the end of the Isolation.

Well, it was for literally everything he did during the Isolation. He wrecked homes and civilizations, drained out the color, misled certain people's trust (like Jowee) and basically became a well-known, public threat to four different Raposian societies.

He _had _to disguise himself if he wanted to live (or prevent from any bodily harm). Though Wilfre would blend in as a face in the crowd, a problem was that everyone was panicking because everything was exploding. The invading Gato were good with causing destruction in the rooftop and theatre district. There were townsfolk in a panic in the streets and main plaza. Nobody was stupid enough to run around, of course, but they were uncertain whether or not they should not be grouped up and should go somewhere else.

Roselyynn, Thunder and Wilfre all had this feeling that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to be in the plaza right now and also that it probably wasn't where White Blaze and her tribe were at the moment.

Seriously. Why would the Gato bother to set up camp in the middle of a city currently stuck in cat warfare? It would be too easy and cause more harm than hurt. They had to be on the outskirts of town somewhere.

The three who were forced to put up with each other were able to head out on the outskirts of the city undetected.

XxXxX

(Watersong- Town Outskirts)

It was now simply a matter of figuring out where White Blaze was. The only level Wilfre had directly been in was in the Abyss one (Roselyynn remembered that pale vividly. She nearly drowned to death there if the Creator hadn't quickly given her scuba gear).

Symphonic Falls and Rockin' Ruins were the only two places that would seem likely for White Blaze and her tribe to momentarily set up camp. With Rockin' Ruins though, it had to be the area before going into the cave. It seemed unlikely for a cat race to set up their camp in a cave mostly filled with water, pirate Baki, and tubas that shot spike balls up at whoever was swimming.

When you weren't in the City of Watersong, the wildlife there had this habit of being particularly dangerous when one really got down to the idea of it. To once again prevent from gaining much attention, Roselyynn, Thunder and Wilfre went over to the forested area around the spring and where the Symphonic Falls was located.

Thunder pondered and carefully analyzed the two areas. He felt like Symphonic Falls would be the best place for the Whiteclaw Gato to set up camp. In some aspects, it was less dangerous, but it was also a better hideout.

"…Y'know, maybe they hid in the Symphonic Falls? There's better opportunities to hide in the area around there and there's less water."

Roselyynn disagreed. She thought it would be the Rockin' Ruins. Sure, water was there and the wildlife was a little more dangerous, but it meant they'd only have to look in one spot. Plus, it was a ruin. It would maybe hold some kind of cultural significance to them.

…Then again, it seemed like the Gato didn't care much for any culture the Raposa had due to how reclusive and isolated they were.

"…Thunder, why the hell would they hide in a waterfall area? That's like saying they decided to set camp in an abyss."

"An abyss is the exact opposite of a waterfall though."

"What do YOU know about water!? You can literally breathe underwater and not need scuba gear due to your adjustments. Then there's me, and because of how I was shaped, I will DROWN underwater if I don't have scuba gear. Penelope probably would too!"

"I'm pretty sure a waterfall and an abyss are two pretty different things."

"And I'M pretty sure you literally don't know what you're talking about."

"Ok, so what do YOU know about water, Roselyynn? Obviously, we're talking about two different things."

"An abyss is basically a giant cavern filled up with seawater, and a waterfall is basically water running from a river falling down from a flat surface."

"You obviously have no idea what you're talking about now, because it's more complicated than that."

"Yeah, but I'm not some kind of water scientist or a marine biologist!"

"What does marine biology have to do with anything?!"

Wilfre was starting to wonder just how stupid these two were despite their status as Creation Heroes. A fish would probably know way more about how water worked than they did, and that was saying something. He decided to try another tactic as the two were arguing. He took a deep breath and focused, trying to detect any shadow goo essence in the area.

He almost immediately picked it up in the direction of Rockin' Ruins, allowing him to determine that that was where the Gato were as well as the others.

The currently-disguised shadow Raposa promptly stopped Roselyynn's and Thunder's argument by interrupting them. "They're in the Rockin' Ruins. We'll need to look through there in order to find their camp."

"Huh?" the two of them asked before Roselyynn paused.

"Oh. Well, I guess I was right, wasn't I, Thunder?"

Thunder glared at Roselyynn and stopped her (or at least tried to stop her) from talking. He didn't think she had proven any kind of point to him yet, as they hadn't looked there and they didn't know. "…We haven't even looked in Rockin' Ruins yet, so don't get all high and mighty."

Wilfre wondered how he was going to put up with these two idiots while trying to find the others. Their arguing had already annoyed him enough.

There was also the fact that he was used to dealing with Roselyynn and Thunder in small doses (except for when he was disguised as Sock. For some reason, they weren't as annoying and now they seemed to be making some kind of conscious effort to annoy him).

Hopefully this partnership would end soon.

-o-o-o-o-

I didn't initially write an endnote for this chapter until I edited through it. Still, writing the group dynamic between Roselyynn, Thunder and Wilfre is fun: especially as they're allying themselves with an old enemy and they're hesitant on trusting him.

Other than that, I don't have very much to say in regards to what will happen next. You'll just have to see.

Like usual, please review if you'd like, please refrain from flaming and please tell me how I can improve.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


	9. Chapter 9: Searching for Cats

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the story.

We left off with Wilfre, Roselyynn and Thunder attempting to find Maelynn and the others as well as overall find the camp of the Whiteclaw Gato. Let's continue from there.

I own nothing but my OCs.

Here's chapter 9!

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 9: Searching for Cats

Upon heading into the Rockin' Ruins area of Watersong, Roselyynn and Thunder could only really see one obvious problem when it came to finding their friends. This problem in particular was the fact of how exactly they were going to find the place when so far, this area looked exactly the same as it was when they last came to it.

Plus, they could only look in the area before the underwater cave section. In some ways, it was like trying to find a needle in the haystack, or maybe vice versa. If the Gato weren't trying to stick out, then it would also be like finding a certain tree in a forest where all of the trees looked the same, and that one tree was the only thing that was different.

Wilfre was beginning to figure out that Roselyynn and Thunder were good at finding secret areas when they were obvious and were looking hard for it, but they weren't good at finding changes to areas.

It's not like they really expected to come back to Watersong on another adventure to save the world again (except from a different Raposa and not Wilfre. Roselyynn and Thunder still couldn't entirely trust him). It seemed likely that Watersong didn't really expect it either, noting how upset the citizens were about the whole situation. Their city was being ravaged by cats! Buildings were being violently destroyed (by missiles, which was unnecessary force to use), the Watersonian Raposa were likely bring torn out of their homes, and there was also battling between two tribes of Gato they suddenly had to deal with.

It most certainly did not give any outsiders a good first impression of the Gato and their lifestyle. This sudden appearance made them look like savages!

Because of their limited knowledge on the Gato race, at this point, Roselyynn and Thunder were just looking for an anthropomorphic cat and any signs that would indicate that a cat was there somewhere. They wished that Maelynn, Rikki or Aurora were here and weren't captured as they seemed to have the most grasp on the concept of other races existing other than the Raposa and their common behaviors based upon their lifestyle.

In fact, it seemed like the Renard Raposa were generally wiser about the world around them and were more forgiving when it came to past events. They weren't involved at all during the Isolation and during both of Wilfre's attacks as well as Circi's. They were _impacted_ by it, yes, but they didn't seem very upset that these events took place.

The only event the Renard Raposa seemed to be directly involved in was with Circi and the Giant Scribble Monster when ink flooded the Raposa Village. When I say flooded in this circumstance I mean '_flooded_' as there was so much ink from that incident that there was a waterfall of it. It likely spread to the Renard Village as the Giant Scribble Monster took a lot of time, even with three heroes working to take it down before Wilfre's next attack came.

Now that Roselyynn and Thunder were off-topically thinking about it, the Isolation caused a LOT of destruction in multiple aspects. Even though the rest of the world was cut out, it didn't necessarily mean that they didn't experience it. They were merely spectators to the series of unfortunate events that had unfolded.

Unless they were also unaware of what happened. Then again, it seemed unlikely.

Upon remembering that they really needed to get back on topic and find the Whiteclaw Camp, Roselyynn and Thunder looked a little more frantically. Upon even more observation and putting 2 and 2 together, Wilfre found that these two obviously did not know what they were doing. This wasn't how you tracked down another creature.

"…You two have no idea what you're doing, don't you?" Wilfre asked, crossing his arms and appearing unamused with the both of them.

Roselyynn was going to be prideful and say "Oh no, we do. We're fine". However, Thunder decided to be honest about the situation because acting like you knew how to do something when you really didn't was worse than not knowing at all.

"We don't. Maelynn and the others have more knowledge on the Gato tribes than we do. They were able to pick up which ones were here by their symbols and have a better idea of how they work than we do." Roselyynn bit her lip and proceeded to smack Thunder on the head. Quickly after, she turned her head away and narrowed her eyes.

Her lilac eyes glared at Thunder's smaller, rounder ones upon moving her eyes back over to him with a quick shift of her head. "Thanks a lot, Thunder. You made us look completely incompetent." Roselyynn mouthed at Thunder before huffing and looking away.

Still, Wilfre wasn't all that surprised that they didn't know. The idea of cat people was a completely new concept to him and (though he didn't want to admit it) he didn't really know about them either.

This was a situation where everyone KNEW what they were looking for, but knew so little about what they were trying to find that they'd only lead themselves in circles. Roselyynn sighed and clasped her hands together, praying to the Creator that maybe, just maybe, that in her grace she'd give them some kind of sign to find the Whiteclaw Clan's camp.

There was a few seconds, and the trio waited. And waited for a little longer. And waited for even longer. And then, half an hour had passed by and it seemed like the Creator wasn't answering them and letting them find the Gato clan on their own without any clues.

Until they received that sign, because upon hearing sudden, but faint noise, they saw what appeared to be White Blaze and the other two who took their friends heading back to another location. Roselyynn wanted to cry in joy, but she couldn't.

Mainly because as soon as she looked like she was going to, Wilfre and Thunder proceeded to shush her. And, they also needed to be quiet and not draw a lot of attention because who knows what would happen if they made too much noise? Wilfre, assuming that it was safe (seeing figures of other Raposa made him nervous), switched back into his shadowy form.

Now that they knew where to go, the only thing they really needed to do was formulize a plan and figure out how they were going to sneak after them without making much noise. The Gato likely had really sharp hearing, so being quiet in an area like this would be hard.

Wilfre decided that maybe, if they snuck after them in the shadows, then they could go after them undetected.

So, upon suggesting the idea, Roselyynn and Thunder agreed upon it until Wilfre was about to literally hide them in the shadows (like Penelope had done) and move to sneak after them. Now, Penelope doing that was freaky and bothersome, but Wilfre doing that was a big no.

Well, it was in Roselyynn's opinion. Thunder was chiller than she was when it came to this, and he was getting used to the concept much faster than the pink-headed heroine ever would. It ended up relying on a majority vote, and noting that Wilfre was the tiebreaker, it would rely on Thunder.

Roselyynn ended up being the odd man out, because Thunder voted in favor of going into the shadows and Wilfre was going to do the thing anyway because it was the only way they could stealthily move.

The three proceeded to slink after the cats and the others in the quiet where they couldn't be seen.

XxXxX

Being dragged to the Whiteclaw's current camp was a long walk. Despite such, Penelope, Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora didn't mind it all that much. Walking was an essential part of life, even if you were being dragged back to a cat's tribe against your will.

Penelope could picture how Mari would be reacting to this. She'd probably be upset and be like "Oh, Roselyynn, Thunder and Penelope are probably going to save me! Or Jowee is! Just you wait!" Well, technically, Mari didn't really talk like that, but she would probably be going off about how the heroes would be saving her. Or that the Creator would help somehow.

The instance when she was 'captured' by Wilfre was the only exception, however. Penelope was well aware of what happened during the events of the last adventure, despite she wasn't necessarily 'present'. Her knowledge didn't come from being conscious of the fact Roselyynn and Thunder could go and tell her the story all day (they tended to tell her their epic all the time if they were reminiscing about the 'good ol days that were kinda recent').

Penelope didn't know why she couldn't get Mari out of her mind. She was worried about her and all of the other Raposa from the Village, yes, but at the same time, Penelope felt like this was karma. In fact, she kind of felt like they deserved this to happen, though it was cruel to think of it like that.

Now, the Raposa didn't deserve anything that was happening to them. It WAS cruel to think that they 'deserved' to suffer.

However, then came the problem of how the village was in difference in the aftermath to the three prior incidents and to now, and also what happened with the heroes in that time.

In the aftermath of the first incident, the village was trying to repair itself after the late Mayor, Mari's father, died. Mari, despite that she had been training, was also working with the heroes and the Creator to better understand how she could improve her leadership and her newly-assigned role. As a result, she had Circi become her deputy to help her with her responsibilities.

In the aftermath of the second incident, they had to rebuild and repair the village once again after the wedding that took place and after the feast. Mari also had to figure out how to adjust her leadership without Circi. There wasn't as much change needed like with the first time.

Lastly, the third and the final incident. This time, the Raposa of the village thought Wilfre was truly dead and the world was also disconnected (making everyone on the planet at the time believe they were dead until they realized they actually weren't). This instance was a completely different change, because now, the Raposa thought they were in peace. This allowed for prosperity, which drew into laziness.

The heroes understood why they were there for the first two times as well as most of the third. However, once Mike disconnected, the Raposa didn't need the Creation Heroes. Wilfre was supposedly gone and they were at peace. The heroes didn't need to protect them and they should've gone back to the Creator, but the Raposa of the Village still clinged to them.

Because of it, and the fact the heroes were being misused and disrespected, they ended up leaving, and then, out of sheer coincidence, the Raposa of the western village got attacked again and now everyone was gone. There was also the fact that now that parts of the world weren't left out of the incident this time, and now Watersong was being attacked, _everyone in the whole world was involved this time and not the Raposa Village and some other select areas_.

Obviously, the Whiteclaw Gato had no intention to harm the Raposa even though they were directly involved in the fighting. All they intended to do was stop their foes and make them go back to their village and back to their old ways. The Blackpaws, however, seemed to want to destroy Watersong and attract attention to them.

Or at least, that was how White Blaze explained it. In fact, she and the other Whiteclaw Gato had arrived at Watersong second, but before Maelynn and the others did.

Penelope couldn't help but wonder how Mari and the others would react.

The big reason the rabbit was thinking was because of how Maelynn was trying to negotiate with White Blaze and explain to her what was happening, and that this wasn't just a tribal war. This was because of how White Blaze and her clan assumed that the Blackpaws were trying to stir up trouble and were trying to also bring the Raposa into this mess.

…And White Blaze continued to be ignorantly stubborn and deny the truth in contrary to what they assumed to be going on. In fact, while they were walking and Penelope was considering just how the hell they got to this point in the first place, the Gato Chieftess and the Renard Mayor were arguing with each other.

Rikki and Aurora had started a completely different conversation with Elanor and Aelius at this point because listening to the two leaders argue wasn't helping with anything. Penelope wasn't talking at all as she was trying to tune out the argument and the conversation while trying to figure out what to do.

As they started nearing the camp, Penelope felt something familiar nearby. She couldn't hear what it was, or really see it, but she knew it was there and wasn't invisible. However, Penelope could practically smell it, even though everyone else around her was unaware of what it was.

It felt like shadow essence in Penelope's opinion. She had started to learn how to pick it up between the events of the first adventure and especially at the end of the second adventure when they first encountered the Giant Scribble Monster (yes, that was the thing that they fought at the end of their second adventure. Penelope didn't like remembering it, and Roselyynn and Thunder especially didn't like remembering it. That encounter was practically the stuff of nightmares).

The only problem with Penelope detecting shadow essence was the fact that only three individuals to her knowledge were possessed by it and could use it. Penelope could use it, but in minor doses; Circi could also use it, but she was limited in what she could do, and it was unknown how far the extent of her power went (it also didn't help that she was captured either); and Wilfre was also able to use it. He boasted immense amounts of control over it as he had been possessed by the shadow goo for so long.

That brought up three potential conclusions in this scenario. The first was that there could've been trace amounts of shadow goo in the area that Penelope was unaware of. The only issue with that conclusion was the fact that it was highly unlikely. The only area that still had trace amounts was the Raposa Village, as well as the gates around it that led to other areas. The Renard Village didn't have any trace amounts as the village was left (mostly) untouched by the Isolation, excluding what happened with Circi. Despite that there was a flood of ink, which contained shadow essence in it due to what Circi was trying to bring back, the thing that had the most shadow goo at the time was the Giant Scribble Monster.

The second conclusion was that someone else who she was unaware of was using or had used shadow goo in the area. The only problem with that was the fact that there should've only been three individuals, including Penelope. The Creator would inform Penelope if anyone else could use it, but at this time, it was only those three.

The last conclusion was that somebody that she did know was using it at this time. It wasn't Penelope, as she was worn out and it could be too dangerous for her to use her power again. As said prior, it couldn't be Circi because Circi was currently captured and had very limited use of her power from her knowledge. Penelope knew Circi could change into a shadow form, but she didn't know what power Circi had in it.

The only one that could be following them was Wilfre. Penelope had been picking something up while they were in Jivin' Rooftops, but in Watersong in general. It had felt like someone had been closely following them, though it was hard to tell who as Roselyynn, Thunder, Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora couldn't pick up shadow essence. Penelope had influenced them to it, but it didn't harm them due to its purpose and the fact Penelope wasn't trying to harm them with it.

Of course, Penelope could've been wrong, but she was certain it had to be Wilfre. Even if so, she didn't know why Wilfre would be following them (somehow). He might've been using a similar technique that she used when she was moving in the shadows.

This thought was slightly distracting Penelope as they were moving into camp now. The Whiteclaw Clan's current camp was secluded in the smaller tropical forest area of Rockin' Ruins. They hid their camp well to protect themselves, but due to straying away from their common lands and going into Raposa territory, it was evident they had issues of adapting.

White Blaze led the currently-captured Raposa and Penelope into the central tent (which appeared to be the fanciest, as it was decorated with images of fire, and there appeared to be phoenixes emerging from the flames on the front sides of the tent by the entry way. There wasn't a legitimate "door", but cloth used to cover up what would be the door was present. Elanor and Aelius lifted it up for White Blaze and the 'prisoners' and allowed them to go in.

The general suspicion was confirmed when they came in, because yes, this was White Blaze's tent. The circular area seemed a little unorganized and erratic, like she hadn't been having the most pleasant time in Watersong. The first thing they noticed was a bedroll covered with furs. Some appeared to be knocked off by the bedroll and some were still there.

Then, there was some scrolls. They looked like they had been tied up, but they seemed to be scattered all over in one corner like Blaze had been trying to find a certain one, and if it wasn't the right parchment, she'd throw it into the "rejected corner" of the room. There technically wasn't any corners in here, as it was a circular room, so they just assumed that maybe those were thrown in what the Gato called a 'corner'.

There was something in this area that wasn't a mess, being a variety of weapons White Blaze had. There were mostly spears, but each one had something different about it as each spear had a different color, had something different attached to it, and the blades appeared to be made of slightly different material. There was also a rapier, a cutlass, and a basic sword, but they seemed to be unused.

The spear White Blaze had with her at this time had similar feathers adorning her hair around it as well as red ribbon. The handle was made from a strong, red wood, and the blade on it appeared to be made from silver, but also looked as if it were crafted by the scale of a dragon infused with silver. It was a peculiar combination, but none of the 'prisoners' uttered a word about it.

The last thing of notice was that there was a pair of warmer and lighter clothes White Blaze had in another 'corner', but there wasn't any other capes. The cape that Blaze wore at the moment seemed worn, but well loved.

"Ok, so we're here. What do you want now?" Maelynn asked, as White Blaze motioned for Elanor and Aelius to throw Rikki, Aurora and Penelope in the room. Aelius and Elanor left as soon as they were done with their duties and went outside to guard the front of the tent.

The chieftess motioned for her four prisoners to sit down on what appeared to be cushions arranged in a circle in the center of the room. They all hestitantly sat down, and White Blaze did the same. Her robes were almost like a blanket as she seemed to cuddle into her cape as she submerged into the cushion.

Maelynn rolled her eyes out of impatience and decided to repeat her question. "So, Whiteclaw Chieftess. Would you be so kind to tell us why you bothered to kidnap us? We were trying to figure out what was going on so we could help the Watersonians with their Gato epidemic."

"Like I previously said, I wasn't kidnapping you." White Blaze replied, sounding irritated but somewhat offended. "I was taking you out of harm's way. The Raposa aren't to interfere in matters between Gato. Like I also said earlier, the clan of the Raven have shifted off their trail."

Maelynn frowned. "But if I recall what you said earlier, Miss White Blaze, you also said that they've allied with a Raposa. If this Raposa is whom I think it is, this situation may be bigger than a little clan warfare."

White Blaze's ears perked up, and she looked irritated and quite offended by Maelynn's statement. "The conflict between the Raven and the Phoenix is NOT a little clan warfare! Battles between tribes is in the culture of the Gato! The Raven and the Phoenix are rivals!"

"So you always fight, and can never agree?" Aurora chimed in, causing White Blaze's face to flush red. "My mama told me that it is better to make peace negotiations than fight wars."

"My Creator, just how ignorant are you Raposa?" White Blaze suddenly asked out of exasperation. Maelynn and Aurora proceeded to shut their pie holes. "Despite we are rivals, we don't always fight. Raven Feather and I were in a period of peace between the Whiteclaws and the Blackpaws until she decided to ally with a Raposa, break Gato code, and then attack Raposian villages! Why do you think we're fighting them now?"

Penelope's ears perked up, and she proceeded to stop Maelynn and White Blaze from talking with a question. "So, I'm going to butt in now. I hope you don't mind my informalities, White Blaze, but what triggered you to start fighting the Blackpaws this time around? Simply allying with a Raposa would probably be untraditional, but acceptable, so it seems unlikely that you wanted to fight them over that."

White Blaze's ears twitched. She sighed upon taking a long look at Penelope once again. "The worst offense that the Blackpaws have done was practically an attack upon the Creator herself. They attacked one of the holiest villages in the whole world—the one holding the Book of Life. Doing such is a crime to the Gato—no…all the inhabitants of this world!" The Gato chieftess was really passionate about talking of how outraged she was by this. And Penelope knew that something had to be done about it.

"So, like Mayor Maelynn was leading on to, this truly is something interconnected. We know who the Blackpaws are allied with, and though it may go against your traditional ways, I think that there's an urgency to team up." Penelope calmly explained, crossing her short, stubby arms.

Her rabbit ears twitched, and White Blaze closed her eyes. She seemed to be pondering long and hard about what Penelope suggested. However, Penelope felt a chill down her back as the aura of shadow was close. It radiated powerfully, and overwhelmed her senses. However, it also made it look like Penelope was having a panic attack as she was trembling and her eyes were wide.

Rikki looked concerned of his ally. He leaned over and whispered to her. "Hey Penelope, are you ok? You're suddenly not looking so well." Penelope seemed to pale up upon the natural reaction of feeling Wilfre's aura really close.

Her voice got lower and deeper upon speaking next. "He's here. I can feel his presence radiating around us." The lack of context that Penelope had didn't make much sense to anyone around her at this time. And she didn't seem to be trying to make sense either, which Maelynn found to be odd.

White Blaze looked around, trying to figure out what Penelope was saying. "Who? Why are you suddenly changing topics from one thing to another?" Upon saying that, the room went dark. It was an unnatural darkness, which startled all but Penelope. Aurora summoned balls of light in her paws to illuminate the room, and there was suddenly the sound of something scurrying around and a rattling from about where White Blaze's spears were.

Maelynn and Rikki were confused as to what was going on, but they pulled out their weapons on instinct as they tried to make sense of what was going on. Two other light sources came into the room as soon as Penelope felt a paw on her head. The first was the glow of eerie, white eyes. The second was a flame, which appeared to be floating.

Penelope wasn't as scared as she _could have_ been despite the creepiness of the situation. In certain aspects, like darkness, the rabbit heroine was basically desensitized to fear.

She also didn't freak out as soon as she heard a familiar voice speak that caused a variety of mixed reactions from everyone around her. "Hello Penelope. It's a pleasure to see you again."

Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora gasped from someone talking, and the flame that was floating seemed to glow. White Blaze's face was revealed from the fire, and she was understandably angry. She looked like a tiger about to pounce on her target.

"Turn the lights back on, Color Stealer!" The Chieftess ordered. There was a snap, revealing an unimpressed Raposa-like figure whose body looked as if it were made from shadow. Then, Roselyynn and Thunder were there, with weapons drawn. The fact that Roselyynn and Thunder were there was the only thing that actually surprised Penelope despite the awkward situation they were in now.

The shadow Raposa looked somewhat irritated with White Blaze. "Firstly, that was incredibly rude. Tell me, is that how you commonly address others when you first meet them?" White Blaze used no words to respond to him. Instead, she gave him this look like she could care less about how she firstly addressed him and that it truly didn't matter to her HOW he was addressed.

With a roll of his eyes, the shadow Raposa took it as a firm 'yes'. He then proceeded to ask another question. "Secondly, what I did a while back in terms of stealing the world's color was justified in aspects. I'm unsure how someone such as yourself would know how I went through with it, seeing that you are of a different race, but I have a name."

"Even if the draining of color from the world was during the Isolation, it is completely unacceptable with how you've gone against the Creator, and brought shadow and demons of such kind into this world." White Blaze replied. "I also could care less about your name. I know it, most should know it, and nonetheless, you're a monster whose name shouldn't be uttered."

It was obvious to Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora that this was Wilfre. Most Raposa in these parts of the world would've been frightened and enraged to see him in the flesh noting whom it was and what he had done. Plus, there was also the fact that he 'should have been dead'.

Wilfre's presence wasn't frightening to the three Raposa in the slightest. Maelynn appeared to raise an eyebrow at Wilfre, and she proceeded to address him. "It's curious that no matter how many times you've been struck down, in some aspects, you're like a phoenix, Wilfre. You can't seem to die."

White Blaze's ears stuck up when Maelynn freely uttered Wilfre's name and also compared him to a phoenix in the same sentence. Her voice was in a stutter when she spoke next. "P-phoenix? Him? How dare you insult the Phoenix by comparing it to such… such…"

Roselyynn butted into the conversation and decided to be frank with White Blaze. "No, kitty, I think Maelynn was well justified by comparing Wilfre to a phoenix. He does not seem to die. He looks like it, and everyone assumes he's dead, but then it's immediately found out that no, he's not. He's appeared to 'die' twice now." White Blaze's face started to flush red. She kept her phoenix feather spear's tip aflame, like she was going to stab Wilfre with it and give him a nasty burn if he dared step too close.

This whole situation was strange, no matter how many angles that one would look at it, really.

And at the moment, it looked as if Wilfre and White Blaze were about to get in a fight as Blaze raised her spear threateningly.

Penelope quietly prayed to herself that this didn't escalate into a fight.

Because right now, especially with the state of Watersong, they needed as much help as they could get.

-o-o-o-o-

As much as I love writing the Three Heroes, DAMN. This story can be really hard to get back into with writing due to a variety of factors. I'm plenty inspired to write this, but getting it across is hard.

Also, for this part of Watersong, we only have a few chapters left before we move onto Lavasteam and then the Galactic Jungle. As for White Blaze, will she turn out to be friend or foe?

We'll just have to see.

Like usual, please review if you'd like, please try to refrain from flaming and please tell me how I can improve.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!


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